

Antaios Shown in frontal view – Antaios is on his side.His whole body shows the strain of the fight: his calves, his thighs and his torso are all tense. He holds Antaios in a vice-like grip around the neck. Down on his right knee, with the left outstretched behind, Herakles is driving forward – a very strong position. See p.40 in Black text for wider view Herakles’ gear, including bow and arrow, and the trademark club and lionskin cloak A female supporter of Herakles watches the fight Two female supporters of Antaios also watch.Dimensions Height: 46cm Diameter of neck: 55cm.Euphronios Calyx Krater 510-500 B.C White text: p.39-41 Black text: p.39-41.More than 2,000 years later, the vase was looted and smuggled out of the country, Italian authorities say. Like many other Greek vessels, the krater was exported to Italy, and it is believed to have been used by the Etruscan civilization to decorate a tomb near Rome. The Euphronios krater was sent back to Italy this week by the Met, which purchased it in 1972 for $1 million. None of the museums has admitted any wrongdoing.

Paul Getty Trust in August agreed to hand over 40 pieces, including a statue of Aphrodite that Italian officials say was looted from Sicily.

The Italian government has been negotiating with museums such as the Met and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts for the return of artifacts that it says were illegally excavated and smuggled abroad before ending up in prominent U.S. One of the disputed objects is a marble funeral stele published in the exhibit “Glories of the Past.” The person familiar with the talks said the lower half of the stele, which matches the upper half in White’s collection, was found in an official excavation in Attica decades ago and is now in the nearby Vravrona Museum. White is also negotiating with Greek authorities over two objects in her collection believed to have been looted from Greece, according to someone familiar with the negotiations, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks. Nine of the items already have been given to the Italian Consulate in New York and the 10th - another vase by Euphronios - was expected to be returned in two years, the ministry said.
