The three lives of looted ceramics: Cataloguing a collection of apprehended Southern-Italian ceramics from the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Biella Novara VCO e Vercelli

The illegal looting of archaeological objects from the south of Italy is not a new problem. In 2014, 58 pieces of Southern Italian ceramics were apprehended from a storage unit in Verbania and taken to the Soprintendenza of Novara. These pieces, which until now remained unstudied, contain integral information about their history which can be extracted through the examination of style, claytype, provenance, dating and typology. This thesis has set out to provide a preliminary catalogue which not only reveals the origin of these ancient objects, but delves deeper into the assemblage and movement of these pieces after having been looted. It examines the mechanisms of the international art market and provides a suggestion into reconstructing the long life of these objects.