Map from Oplontis: Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy. Volume 1. The Ancient Setting and Modern Rediscovery by John R. Clarke and Nayla K. Muntasser

Acting on a tip-off, the Carabinieri officers raided a cellar on Corso Garibaldi, number 106, just one minute's walk from the historic villa.  There the investigators  found three partially collapsed but still accessible tunnels, all leading in the direction of the Villa of Poppea, with its striking wall paintings  The officers also found a striking number of tools used for the illicit excavation, as seen in the video below.  These included aerators, shoring materials used in the tunnels' development, and containers already filled with volcanic lapilli removed during the advancement of the digging operation.

The owner of the cellar, a 53-year-old local carpenter with no prior criminal record, has been charged with conducting illicit works under Article 169 of Italy’s cultural heritage code. 

Investigators believe the tunnels were dug with the intent of reaching and stealing artefacts from the archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its exceptionally preserved frescoes and structures dating back to ancient Rome.

The Villa of Poppea is a significant part of the Oplontis site and has long been a target for tomb raiders due to its rich archaeological significance. Authorities are continuing their investigation, focusing on whether the carpenter was working alone or, given the abitious nature of materials found, as part of a larger network of artefact thieves.

Earlier this month, a similarly ambitious illicit excavation was uncovered in the heart of Naples.  There officers discovered the remains of an 11th century medieval church eight meters below street level, 2 km away from Naples central train station near Piazza Bovio. 

The raider in this instance is a local entrepreneur, digging directly under an existing palazzo.  Recovered at the scene, officers seized some 10,000 archaeological fragments from the Roman and medieval eras, believed to be from the suburban sector of the ancient Magna Graecia city of Neapolis, as well as 453 intact archaeological finds from the Roman era , including: red-figure craters, amphorae, terracotta lamps and pipes, as well as Roman and medieval coins.

The previously undiscovered church is said to be a rare example of medieval art of the 11th century, whose decoration are similar t the nearby Sacello di Sant'Aspreno. 

Both incidences highlight the significant challenges posed by urban illicit excavations for both law enforcement and cultural heritage protection.  These unauthorised digs, often conducted covertly beneath residential or commercial properties, not only pose safety hazards due to unstable tunnels and potential structural damage, but they also risk irreparable harm to the archaeological context of the site. 

In cities with rich histories like Cairo, Rome or Naples, contemporary city expansion has often built over ancient treasures, making it difficult to monitor such hidden operations.   Looters seeking valuable artefacts frequently destroy layers of history, removing items from their context and severing crucial links to the past.  This not only deprives the public of valuable cultural knowledge but also fuels the black market for antiquities, undermining legitimate efforts to preserve and study historical sites. 

The challenge for authorities is compounded by the difficulty of detecting these operations in densely populated areas, where excavations can go undetected for years, beneath seemingly ordinary locations.

The Biblioteca dei Girolamini in Naples

In a striking blow to the prosecution, former senator of Forza Italia, Marcello Dell'Utri has been acquitted by judges of the first criminal section of the Court of Naples of complicity in the embezzlement for the appropriation of thirteen volumes stolen from the Biblioteca dei Girolamini in Naples.  The theft was one of the most dramatic thefts ever to hit the rare-book world, with the prosecutor, Michele Fini, Antonella Serio and Ilaria Sasso del Verme having asked for seven years of imprisonment for the ex-politician. 

Law enforcement and Italian prosecutors began investigating the thefts at the historic library in 2012, following an email sent by philologist Filippomaria Pontani to art historian Tomaso Montanari after a disheartening visit to the shuttered library.  In that email, he recounted how the Girolamini, closed to the public for years, was in extreme disarray with numerous books and manuscripts missing. 

As news of the scandal spread, investigations into the situation ultimately led to the arrest of the director of the library, Massimo Marino De Caro, an international forger and swindler welcomed in the sacristies and antechambers of power, who appeared at the head of a network of collaborating actors who facilitated the laundering of stolen  historic books into the rare book market.  To remove proof of the books stolen origins, seals identifying the manuscripts as part of the Girolamini collection were removed or in some cases torn out altogether,  leaving telltale bite marks on the sacrificed pages. 

De Caro was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison, the same penalty the Italian prosecutors had been asked for Dell’Utri.  De Caro was also convicted in additional judicial proceedings for the theft of a dozen volumes in the Abbey of Montecassino, the Observatory Ximeniano in Florence and from within the library collection of the Ministry of Agriculture.

With the help of this network of middlemen, book dealers and book conservators De Caro had been able to successfully steal thousands of books, some of which were acquired by, or gifted to, his Sicilian patron, Marcello Dell’Utri.   Yet, throughout the Girolamini investigation, the ex senator has proclaimed that he was unaware of the illegitimate origins of these historical volumes. In total, the former politician would ultimately surrender more than a dozen volumes traced to the Girolamini including:

➣De rebus gestis by Antonio Carafa

➣In hoc volumine haec... by Capitolinus et al., Aldina edition, printed in Venice in 1519 

➣Artificium perorandi by Giordano Bruno, 1612 "Clavis artis Iullianae" by Johann Heinrich Alsted, 1609 

➣De Principe by Leon Battista Alberti, 1520 

➣Panegyricus Philippo V Hispaniarum by Giovan Battista Vico, 1702 

➣Lu vivu mortu effettu di lu piccatu di la carni by Antonino Damiano, 1734 

➣La luce massonica. Visione di un confratello del p. Cristoforo by MGL of 1886 

➣L’asino d’oro by Lucio Apuleio filosofo platonico by Apuleius, 1665 

➣De optimo principe dialogus by Giovanni Bernardo Gualandi, c1561 

➣Trattato del governo de principi by Saint Thomas Aquinas, c 1577 

➣Petri Pauli Vergerij Iustinopolitani by Pietro Paolo Vergerio the Elder, 1526 

➣Leo Baptista De Albertis Florentius De Princepe by Leon Battista Alberti, 1520

➣and Utopia by Thomas Moore, 1518. The latter of which Dell'Utri did not return as he was unable to find it. 

But this case was not Dell'Utri's only brush with the law.  Apart from the bibliophile's passion for collecting rare books and incunabla, the ex politician and friend of Silvio Berlusconi has been found guilty of tax fraud, false accounting, and complicity in conspiracy with the Sicilian Mafia.   The last charge of which was upheld by the  Court of Cassation on 9 May 2014.  As part of that decision, and after exhausting appeals, the third criminal section of Palermo's Appellate Court declared Dell'Utri a fugitive and he was detained in Lebanon at a luxury hotel on an International Arrest Warrent a month later. 

Afterward, Dell'Utri was extradited back to Italy.  There he served 4 years in prison before being released to house arrest to serve out the remaining portion of his sentence, due to a substantial heart condition. 

In April 2018 Dell’Utri was again sentenced to 12 years in prison in the court of first instance, for undermining the state, via his involvement in the Trattativa Stato-Mafia, the negotiation between important Italian functionaries and Cosa Nostra members, that began after the period of the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia.  His lawyers appealed that decision in March 2019 to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg because he was allegedly illegally tried twice on the same facts and once acquitted. 

In closing this week's chapter on the library thefts, the judges of the first criminal section, chaired by Francesco Pellecchia, accepted the defence's arguements as made Dell’Utri's lawyers Claudio Botti and Francesco Centonze, showing that at least where books and manuscripts are concerned, Dell’Utri is still made of teflon. 

By:  Lynda Albertson