Painted by a Greek master around 515 BC, the Euphronios Krater became a prized acquisition of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art before its return to Italy in 2008. Its destination reflected a crucial distinction: the vessel was Greek in its creation, but its looting and illegal export had taken place in Italy.
A BBC Culture retrospective revisited the 1975 investigation that followed the vase’s trail to ancient tombs outside Cerveteri, northwest of Rome. Behind the museum controversy lies a longer history of Greek art crossing the Mediterranean—and becoming part of another civilization’s burial traditions.
Euphronios Krater: Greek craftsmanship, an Etruscan burial
The Euphronios Krater bears the signatures of two craftsmen: Euxitheos, who made the vessel, and Euphronios, who painted it. An example of Attic red-figure pottery, it dates to the late sixth century BC. Its principal scene depicts the transport of the body of Sarpedon, giving the vessel its alternative name, the Sarpedon Krater.
In the painting, Sleep and Death lift the fallen hero’s body while Hermes stands between them. The reverse shows young men preparing their armor—a quieter scene beside the mythological drama.
A krater was a vessel for mixing wine and water. Such objects belonged to Greek drinking culture, but their ancient audience extended well beyond Greece. Thousands of Attic vases were exported to Etruria, where the Etruscans adapted Greek communal drinking customs to their own banquets. Elite Etruscan burials could include sets of these vessels.
The presence of Greek pottery in an Italian tomb was therefore not a contradiction. These objects were evidence of connections between Mediterranean societies, valued both for their craftsmanship and for the roles they acquired far from their workshops. The archaeological authorities at Cerveteri identify the Euphronios Krater specifically with the ancient Etruscan city.
From a looted tomb to the Met
Italy’s Culture Ministry states that tomb robbers removed the krater in 1971 and that it was subsequently exported illegally to the United States. The Met acquired it in 1972, but questions about its origins soon overshadowed the celebration of its artistic importance.
In the 1975 program Treasure Trail, reporter John Percival followed the story to Cerveteri. His investigation described a landscape vulnerable to clandestine excavation, with ancient tombs offering opportunities for robbers seeking objects destined for the international market.
“The Italian robbers are chasing million-dollar pots,” Percival said, as quoted in BBC Culture’s retrospective. “The Italian cops are chasing the robbers.”
The investigation also described police receiving instruction in ancient art from an expert at Rome’s Villa Giulia Museum. Yet the number of accessible tombs made enforcement difficult. At one freshly looted burial, fragments considered insufficiently valuable to carry away had been abandoned.
Why restitution meant Italy
The central distinction is between where an object was made and where it was unlawfully removed. The krater’s Greek authorship was not in dispute. Italy’s restitution case concerned an object taken from an archaeological site within its territory and exported illegally—not a claim that Euphronios was an Italian artist.
On February 21, 2006, the Met signed an agreement transferring ownership of the krater and other antiquities to Italy. The arrangement allowed the vessel to remain on display in New York until January 2008 and provided for long-term Italian loans of comparable works.
The museum’s announcement said the agreement stipulated that the objects had been acquired in good faith. It also acknowledged problems in the acquisitions process. Those terms matter: the restitution agreement should not be presented as a criminal judgment against the museum.
The krater remained on view at the Met through January 13, 2008, before returning to Italy.
Back in Cerveteri
After its return, the vessel was housed at Rome’s Villa Giulia museum. It later moved to Cerveteri, where the Culture Ministry confirmed its permanent placement in 2015. The National Archaeological Museum of Cerveteri lists it among its collection highlights.
There, the krater can be understood as more than a painting by a celebrated Greek artist. Its setting reconnects that achievement with the Etruscan community that received it in antiquity and with the archaeological landscape from which it was stolen.
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