Italy Fights for Roman Statue, “Doryphoros”

Italian courts claim that the Roman statue of “Doryphoros” must be returned to Italy, saying it was illegally excavated in the 1970s from a site near Pompeii.

The statue, known as “Doryphoros from Pompeii,” is a rare marble antiquity of a muscular, solidly built, standing warrior that once held a spear on its shoulder. Based off the original Greek, larger than life, bronze sculpture, this marble replica was created around the Roman Era based off the prototype by one of the most renowned Greek sculptors, Polykleitos.

An account reported to the city of Torre Annunziata Italy in the 1970s , claimed that a shipwreck had sent the Roman marble statue of Doryphoros into the depths of the seas of Italy. That was the official story, until the statue reappeared in the Museum in Munich, Germany. The dealer that had lent it to the museum claims that statue had been recovered from the ravages of seawater and escaped attention for decades because it was held in a private collection. The statue was later purchased for $2.5 million in 1986 by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where the officials endorsed the account of its claimed rediscovery by the dealer.

Recently, its history was called into question. According to The New York Times, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the archaeological site at Pompeii, said, “The state doesn’t show signs of having been under salty seawater for a long time.” If the statue were to be returned, it will be exhibited in a new museum in Italy, the Libero D’orsi Museum, to showcase works that have been recovered by Italy’s art theft police.

– Juliet Reyes