Pompeia Archaeological Park
Work of art was stolen by a Nazi captain during World War II. It was created at the time of the birth of Jesus.
O mosaic would have been created in the region of Vesuvius, Near Mount Vesuvio – who entered a fatal eruption in the year 79 AD and destroyed the neighboring city of Pompeii.
Was elaborated at the time of Birth of Jesus Christ. It is from the times of the Roman Empire but does not portray heroic myths, like many other mosaics of that time.
This mosaic seems to show a scene of daily intimacy between two people. You see a man lying on the bed, with a woman standing next to him. Archaeologists believe they will have decorated the floor of a room in a village.
That is, it is a Erotic mosaic. It can be a sign of a cultural in ancient art.
We jumped two millennia and passed to World War II, when Nazi Captain He returned home with this mosaic; he had stolen While in Italy, where he helped the Germans in the military supply chain.
But this captain did not stay with the mosaic: gave the work to a civil – who in turn left the mosaic to his heirs, when it died.
We again made a smaller time leap: now, 80 years later, the mosaic was returned to pompei.
The heirs contacted the protection of cultural heritage in Rome, the capital of Italy.
There it was found that the mosaic was “a work attributable to loot of works of art belonging to the heritage of the Italian state during World War II. ”And was returned.
The news has now been given by the Pompeia Archaeological Park, which however it still has several doubts About the piece.
It is not known exactly where the German captain stole the mosaic, how the work of art was stolen, whether the author or author died in the eruption or even lived nearby; It is impossible for archaeologists to know exactly their origin, their context.
“We do not know the exact provenance of the artifact and we will probably never know it; we will do additional archeometric studies and analyzes to investigate its authenticity and rebuild its history to the extent possible.”
However, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompei Archaeological Park, underlines: “Each looted artifact that returns is a wound that heals“, Appointment or.
