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Artefacts to be
swapped for copies after Pompeii thefts
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 16/11/2003)
Italian authorities are so alarmed by a
spate of thefts from the ruins of Pompeii that they are
planning to remove to safety "all the antiquities not
nailed down".
Some of Europe's most important Roman
mosaics and other decorations - including ancient
storage jars, capitals and columns - are to be replaced
with copies to protect them from thieves operating out
of the neighbouring crime-ridden city of Naples.
Officials are drawing up a list of the
most easily removed items from the open-air site - where
security is notoriously lax - and plan to move them to
museums and stores after the third serious break-in in
six months.
In the most recent case, thieves removed
the stonework of a first-century AD Roman well, weighing
150lb, from one house during the night. The entrance to
the building was found to have been forced, as were the
entrances to two others - from which nothing was
taken.
Renato Squitieri, a senior culture
ministry official sent from Rome to handle the
emergency, said: "We will look after the treasures of
the ancient city by keeping them in safe places."
Officially, the plan is for the temporary
removal of artefacts until the ancient city's shambolic
security system can be improved. But once the
antiquities are put into storage, officials privately
admit that many of the most valuable items are unlikely
to be returned.
Instead, Pompeii's three million visitors
a year will find the site - buried by the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 - stripped of many of its
original archaeological features.
Although some of Pompeii's most valuable
treasures are already stored away from the clutches of
the Camorra - or local mafia - in the celebrated Naples
archaeological museum, the new approach will be far more
sweeping.
A Pompeii official said that the plan was
"eventually to remove everything that is not nailed down
and replace it with good copies".
A mosaic of Alexander the Great is
already being copied for this purpose. Critics within
the government-controlled body which manages the site
fear that the same philosophy may soon be extended to
some of the more important frescos.
"It seems that the days of Pompeii's
romantic abandon are over," one official said. "Its main
importance should be its human dimension, an inhabited
place which was overrun by an eruption but still has the
atmosphere of a place where people lived. Will it lose
its soul if everything old is taken away?"
Two previous break-ins resulted in
sensational thefts: in April, thieves working
undisturbed in the night managed to hack out and make
off with two frescos from a building known as the House
of the Chaste Lovers. To the relief of experts, the
frescos were recovered in a nearby building site - where
they lay carefully packed, apparently ready for shipment
abroad.
A fountain similar to the well was
earlier stolen from the House of the Ceii. Since the
fountain disappeared, CCTV surveillance of the perimeter
of Pompeii's 45-hectare site has been installed - but it
has been out of order for nearly a year following a
suspicious fire.
A sophisticated alarm system is now being
planned to protect the interior of Pompeii's 30 most
important houses, but the installation of the system has
yet to begin.
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