# The Morgantina Treasure
> Unrecorded Hellenistic Sicilian workshop, probably Syracuse - 3rd century BC, most likely made in the years of Hieron II's reign at Syracuse (269-215 BC) and buried around 214-211 BC
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> Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-17
## Tombstone
- **Artist:** Unrecorded Hellenistic Sicilian workshop, probably Syracuse
- **Date:** 3rd century BC, most likely made in the years of Hieron II's reign at Syracuse (269-215 BC) and buried around 214-211 BC
- **Medium:** Silver and silver-gilt (parcel-gilt): sheet silver worked in repousse and chasing, with mercury (fire) gilding applied selectively to raised ornament
- **Dimensions:** Sixteen pieces in the Metropolitan Museum's own published count (a 2003 letter from the museum's director and at least one secondary account instead give fifteen, a discrepancy not resolved in the sources consulted); individual dimensions and weights, where published, are given piece by piece in Technical below
- **Object type:** Silver
- **Period:** Hellenistic, Greek Sicily
- **Current location:** Museo Archeologico Regionale di Aidone, Aidone, Sicily
- **Attribution:** unknown
## Summary
The Morgantina Treasure is a hoard of sixteen pieces of Hellenistic silver, some of it gilt, made in Sicily in the third century BC and buried, on coin evidence, around the Roman sack of the Greek city of Morgantina in 211 BC. Illegally dug up in 1979-80 and sold on through a Lugano middleman to the dealer Robert Hecht, it reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in two purchases, in 1981 and 1982, for a price sources give as either 2.7 or 3 million dollars.An archaeologist who had spent his career excavating Morgantina, Malcolm Bell III, recognised the hoard on the Met's own wall in 1987 and spent the next twelve years pressing a museum that stalled him at every step, until his own excavation of a looted house and his own rereading of a scratched Greek inscription overturned the museum's published account of what the objects were. The correction turned an anonymous 'trophy of war,' as the Met's curator had translated it, into the named property of a man called Eupolemos.Italy and the Met settled the case within a wider 2006 framework agreement that also resolved the Euphronios krater. The silver returned to Italy in 2010 and now belongs to a loan arrangement, not a clean break: it rotates on an approximately four-year cycle between the Museo Archeologico Regionale di Aidone, two kilometres from where it was dug up, and the Met's own galleries in New York, where it was independently confirmed on display again in 2015. Individual pieces, above all a gilt medallion of the sea-monster Scylla and a pyxis lid showing the personification of Peace with a child, are now among the most reproduced images of Hellenistic Sicilian silverwork anywhere.
## Provenance
Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it.
- **3rd century BC-c. 214-211 BC** A household at Morgantina identified by graffito as that of Eupolemos, argued by some scholars to be a hierophant of Demeter and Persephone `[disputed]` (origin and use)
Made, on style, in the third century BC, probably in the decades of Hieron II's reign at Syracuse, and used as domestic and ritual plate at Morgantina. The graffito reading and the identification of the owner's status are both argued rather than documented; see open_questions.
- **c. 214-211 BC-1979-80** Buried at Morgantina; no owner recorded `[documented]` (concealment)
Buried, on coin evidence, around the time of the Roman siege and sack of Morgantina in 211 BC, and never recovered by its owners. The findspot, a Hellenistic house identified in 1997-98 excavation as the likely source, is a strong circumstantial match, not a witnessed record.
- **1979-80-1986** Vincenzo Bossi (also spelled Bozzi) and Filippo Baviera, tomb robbers of Enna; then Orazio Di Simone, middleman, Lugano `[disputed]` (illegal excavation and export)
This account rests on information passed by the Carabinieri's art squad, published by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, and on testimony from tomb robbers with a direct interest in reducing their own legal exposure. Bossi and Baviera are reported to have sold the silver for 110 million lire (about 27,000 dollars) to Di Simone, a Sicilian middleman based in Lugano, Switzerland. No contemporaneous excavation record exists, by definition, and this record does not treat the account as more certain than its sourcing allows.
- **1981-1982** Robert Hecht, antiquities dealer, Paris and New York `[documented]` (sale)
Di Simone sold the hoard to Robert Hecht for 875,000 dollars. Hecht sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in two lots, in 1981 and 1982; sources disagree on the total price the Met paid, giving either 2.7 million or 3 million dollars. Hecht went on trial in Rome from 2005 on charges of trafficking in looted antiquities; the case was dismissed in 2012, shortly before his death.
- **1981-82-January 2010** The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York `[documented]` (purchase and ownership)
Published by curator Dietrich von Bothmer in the museum's Bulletin in 1984, with what a source consulted describes as only vague details of possible origin, and with a graffito translation ('from the war') later shown to be a misreading of a personal name. The museum refused Malcolm Bell's 1993 request to examine the pieces and did not grant access until 1999. In 2003 the museum's director offered to cede title after a further 25-year loan, an offer Italy declined.
- **21 February 2006-January 2010** Title agreed for transfer to Italy; possession with the Metropolitan Museum pending the agreed date `[documented]` (negotiated agreement)
The Metropolitan Museum, Italy's Ministry of Culture and the Sicilian regional government signed a framework agreement on 21 February 2006 covering the Morgantina silver alongside the Euphronios krater, a Laconian kylix and three examples of red-figure pottery. The silver could remain on loan and on view in New York until January 2010; in exchange, Italy agreed to lend the Met other ancient works described in the agreement as 'comparably great'.
- **2010-present** Italian Republic; Museo Archeologico Regionale di Aidone, with a recurring loan rotation to the Metropolitan Museum `[documented]` (return, and a rotating loan rather than a clean break)
Title passed to Italy from January 2010; the hoard was displayed at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, through 23 May 2010, then in Palermo through roughly August 2010, then at Aidone, where the New York Times reported it on display by 5 December 2010. The 2006 agreement's terms have produced a recurring loan rotation, reported at roughly four-year intervals, between Aidone and New York; this was independently confirmed in February 2015 when the pieces were documented back on display at the Met. Later reports of a further return to Sicily conflict on the date (2020 in one account, 2022 in another), and this record has not established the object's exact physical custody as of 2026.
## Auction results
Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so.
- **** ,
- This hoard has never been offered at public auction. Every figure attached to it is a private-sale or trafficking-chain figure: 110 million lire (about 27,000 dollars) reported for the sale from the tomb robbers to Orazio Di Simone; 875,000 dollars reported for Di Simone's sale to Robert Hecht; and either 2.7 million or 3 million dollars, sources disagree, for Hecht's sale to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1981-82. None of these carries a premium, an estimate or an underbidder in the ordinary auction sense, and none is independently documented by a published invoice or receipt in the sources consulted.
## Open questions
- Is the correct piece count sixteen or fifteen? The Metropolitan's own object title and most secondary accounts say sixteen; a 2003 letter from the museum's director and at least one other secondary account say fifteen. This record has not found a source that explains the discrepancy.
- What was the actual price the Metropolitan paid Robert Hecht? Sources consulted give both 2.7 million dollars (an academic summary citing later press reporting) and 3 million dollars (an investigative account citing Carabinieri information), and neither cites a published invoice.
- Is the name on the two graffiti-bearing vessels definitely the same Eupolemos named on the separately excavated Morgantina land document, or two different men of the same name? The sources consulted treat the match as persuasive rather than certain.
- Was the household that owned this silver actually that of a hierophant of Demeter and Persephone, as some scholars have proposed? No source consulted cites a text stating the owner's office; the identification rests on combining the altar, the horns and the name.
- What is the function of the pair of silver horns? The common explanation, mounts for a leather ritual mask, is repeated in secondary sources without a cited parallel object or ancient text specific to Sicily.
- Is there a scholarly name for the second pyxis lid, the one showing a single winged child with a torch? This record could not locate one, and does not use the term sometimes applied loosely to comparable Hellenistic pyxides, an 'Erotes frieze', for lack of a source that applies it to this specific piece.
- What did the individual pieces from the 1979-80 looting fetch, and did all sixteen (or fifteen) reach Robert Hecht by the same route through Orazio Di Simone, or did some travel separately? The chain as documented covers the hoard as a whole, not piece by piece.
- Was there a formal handover ceremony when the hoard reached Aidone in late 2010, and if so, who attended and what was said? This record has not located an account of one, unlike the fuller press record that exists for some other repatriated Sicilian antiquities from the same years.
- Where is the hoard physically now, in 2026? Reporting on its most recent return to Sicily conflicts (2020 in one account, 2022 in another), and this record has not been able to establish whether it is currently at Aidone or on a further rotation to New York.
- What became of the 2024 seizure of fragmentary silver reportedly linked to the same house? This record could not confirm from the single source consulted whether the pieces have in fact been formally reunited with the hoard at Aidone.
## Sources
- [1] Suzie Thomas, 'Morgantina Silver', Trafficking Culture encyclopedia case study, last modified 26 November 2012, drawing on Watson and Todeschini (2006), Bell (2002), Stille (1999), Singleton (2006), Wilkerson (2001), Hundley (2000), Brodie (1998), Carroll (2002) and Eakin and Povoledo (2006). The fullest single sourced account consulted for this record; used throughout for the looting chain, the price chain, von Bothmer's 1984 publication, Bell's role and timeline, the 2003 letter, and the 2006 agreement's terms.
- [2] Wikipedia, 'Morgantina treasure'. TERTIARY, flagged for replacement with a published excavation or museum catalogue account. Used for the itemised list of the sixteen pieces, individual weights and dimensions, the historical context of the 211 BC siege, the hierophant interpretation, and the display sequence in Rome and Palermo.
- [3] UVA Magazine, 'Plunder: The theft of the Morgantina silver'. Used for Malcolm Bell's direct quotations, the 1987 sighting at the Met, the twelve-year delay, the 1997-98 excavation and coin evidence, and the graffito correction.
- [4] Archaeological Institute of America, 'Spinning a Tale', interview with Malcolm Bell, Archaeology Magazine Archive. Used for corroboration of Bell's direct quotations and his account of the Met's response to his requests.
- [5] Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities, From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums, excerpted at erenow.org. Used for the looting chain with named tomb robbers and middleman, the price chain from tomb robber to Hecht to the Met, von Bothmer's inscription translation, and Ashton Hawkins's response to Giuseppe Mascara's testimony.
- [6] Lee Rosenbaum, 'Happy Returns: Relinquished Hellenistic Silver Back on Display at Metropolitan Museum', CultureGrrl, ArtsJournal, February 2015. Independent eyewitness documentation that the four-year loan rotation is real, based on a personal visit to the Met's galleries and 2015 loan labels.
- [7] Kate Ludlow, 'A dark cloud with a silver lining - the Morgantina silver returns to Sicily', personal blog, 25 June 2010. Used for the Palermo display and the itemised description of individual pieces including the mask-footed mixing bowls.
- [8] Artec 3D, '3D digitalization of Sicily's Morgantina treasure', case study. Used for the structured-light scanning programme and its stated purpose.
- [9] Il Giornale dell'Arte, 'Un nuovo nucleo di argenti per il Tesoro di Morgantina' (2024). Used for the 2024 seizure of fragmentary silver reportedly linked to the same findspot, and for one of the two conflicting dates given for the hoard's most recent return to Sicily.
- [10] Finestre sull'Arte, 'The Morgantina silverware returns to Sicily after four years, on display at the Archaeological Museum of Aidone'. Used for the four-year rotation terms and for the other of the two conflicting dates given for the hoard's most recent return to Sicily.
- [11] American Academy in Rome, 'Remembering Malcolm Bell III'. Used for Bell's biography, career, honours, honorary citizenship of Aidone in 2008, and death on 7 January 2024.
- [12] Duke Today, 'Morgantina' (2012). Used for Carla Antonaccio's role as co-director from 1990 and her quotation on the Eupolemos name.
- [13] Wikimedia Commons, files 'Tesoro di morgantina, 01.JPG' through '10.JPG', photographs by Commons contributor Folegandros, own work, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, category 'Morgantina Treasure'. Licence, authorship and category verified per file via the Commons API before use; the images were also visually inspected to confirm each shows a piece consistent with the documented hoard rather than the unrelated Getty cult statue displayed in the same museum.
- [14] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogue entry 'A group of 16 silver vases and utensils'. TERTIARY ACCESS ONLY: the museum's own page could not be directly fetched during research for this record (repeated bot-protection and rate-limit errors); the object's Met-assigned title, used here for the piece count and as the basis for the tags, is known only via search-index summaries and secondary mirrors. Flagged for the editor to re-verify directly against metmuseum.org before publication.
- [15] Center for Art Law, 'Italian Trial of Robert Hecht Concludes with No Verdict', 23 January 2012. Used for the Rome trial's 2005 start, its 16 January 2012 conclusion on a statute-of-limitations ruling with no verdict, and Hecht's age at the time.
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