The missing piece in the puzzle

The story began in 2017 when a Belgian art collector put several archaeological elements up for sale. The European art catalog offered pieces belonging to a Daunian funerary stele, which were noticed by a State Archaeology lab in Apulia, southeast Italy. 

The stele presented by the Belgian collector was missing its centerpiece. An official from the restoration lab had noticed that the missing part was exhibited in the museum’s collection. It represented a warrior on horseback and his shield. 

[Picture from Archaeology News Network. Credit: Italian Carabinieri Art Squad]   

This was indeed the proverbial missing piece in the puzzle, which set in motion the complete investigation. Soon, Italian authorities recovered nearly 800 separate artifacts which the Belgian collector had gathered illegally. The pieces included Daunian steles, red figure vases, black glazed Apulian ceramics, amphorae and a great number of terracotta figurines. The artifacts have been dated to the period between the 6^th and the 3^rd century BC, and their value has been estimated to 11 million Euros. 

Luckily, the rare collection has been repatriated to Italy after all the legal appeals of the collector were dismissed. That is an excellent result, of course, although the items have all been taken out of their context and sadly we’ll never know to which grave or tomb they once belonged.