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 is handing over a piece of Greek pottery from 5th Century, B.C. to Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration in order to see that the object is returned to its rightful owner, the Italian government.

Attributed to the Methyse Painter, 460-450 B.C.

Image courtesy the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

 back in 1983 from a well known dealer. Since then it's held a prominent place in the museum's relatively modest antiquities collection.

But in 2006 a criminal investigation into another dealer, 

revealed a storehouse of images of looted objects. A few of those photographs depicted a krater that looked startlingly similar to the one in the MIA's collection.

Read about how the MIA traces the ownership of the art in its collection

According to the MIA's director Kaywin Feldman, the staff at the MIA began looking into the ownership history of their Grecian krater to determine whether it might or might not be the object in question, but a change in museum leadership, and the departure of a department head resulted in the issue being dropped.

That conversation led to an exchange of information which eventually determined the MIA's krater had likely been illegally excavated. The MIA's board of directors voted in March to deaccession the object and return it to the Italian government. The Italian government for its part has stated that it is thankful for the return of the krater.

Feldman says standards around provenance requirements have changed drastically since the krater was first acquired in 1983:

Feldman says due to American museums' increased rigor around provenance, the market for looted antiquities has all but dried up.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts returned Fernand Leger's "Smoke Over Rooftops" to the heirs of Jewish art collector Alphonse Kann.

Image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Arts

This is not the first time the MIA has had to give up an item in its collection. In October of 2008 the museum returned 

an early 20th century painting by Fernand Leger

, after determining it was looted by Nazis during the German occupation of France.

Currently no other items in the MIA are a source of concern, but Feldman says determining the history of objects in the collection is a regular part of the museum's work.

While the return of the Greek krater has been agreed upon, logistics are still being worked out. Feldman estimates the krater will remain at the museum for at least a month, possibly several months. The MIA is taking advantage of the opportunity to educate the public; the krater is currently on display with an accompanying explanation of the investigation.

 authorities, Feldman attributes it to "early globalism." Evidently Romans and Etruscans were very interested in collecting Greek objects, including kraters, which were used for mixing wine. This krater was so valued that it was included in a Roman burial, in what is present-day Italian soil.

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

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The provenance - or history of ownership - of the piece came into question in 2006; it was recently determined to have been looted from an Italian tomb.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts returns Greek pottery to Italy

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