The Euphronios Krater and the Met–Italy Repatriation Accord
In 1972, the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the Attic red-figure Euphronios krater (potter Euxitheos / painter Euphronios) from dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr. for about $1 million.
What Left the Ground
Italian investigations tied the vase to looting near Cerveteri (Greppe Sant’Angelo, Dec 1971 narratives) and to Giacomo Medici’s network. On 21 Feb 2006, the Met and Italy’s Culture Ministry signed a title-transfer agreement; the krater returned to Rome Jan 2008.
People, places, and dates that keep recurring in the primary record include: MMA 1972.11.10; Hecht; Medici conviction era; Philippe de Montebello negotiations; Villa Giulia / later Cerveteri display; 21-object package in Met statement.. Open first: https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/statement-by-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-on-its-agreement-with-italian-ministry-of-culture-2006-news before secondary retellings.
What Museums and Courts Wrote
Template case for museum provenance reform.
Keep this institutional page in the working set: https://plone.unige.ch/art-adr/cases-affaires/euphronios-krater-and-other-archaeological-objects-2013-italy-and-metropolitan-museum-of-art/agreement-between-the-italian-ministry-of-culture-and-the-met-21-february-2006/view. Museum statements, dig reports, and court or committee PDFs outrank viral summaries here.
What Remains Contested
Purchase, Italian investigation, 2006 accord, and 2008 return documented. Hecht’s Sarrafian ownership story is the discredited provenance layer.
Third load-bearing URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/arts/design/19bowl.html. Untethered claims stay in the contested column.
After the 2006 Signature
This page holds “The Euphronios Krater and the Met–Italy Repatriation Accord” to dated instruments—digs, museums, courts, papers—then marks reception and fringe as reception and fringe. Neighbor links are navigation, not evidence.
Title-transfer dates beat dealer myths. The 2006 signature is the Archive’s hinge.