Italian government releases funds for Pompeii amid new damage to site

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26443808

The Italian government - or more correctly, successive Italian governments - should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. When will they step up and do their own fair share, particularly in light of the amount of revenue cultural tourism generates in Italy annually? For so many years now the EU and mainly American and British philanthropic institutions have done all the heavy lifting.

Books for Pleasure & Research, Antiquarian Books & Prints, Catalogs, Periodicals & More…

One of the resources we offer visitors to our website is a selection of books for both pleasure & research, antiquarian books & prints, catalogs and periodicals, all dealing with antiquities collecting and auctions, ancient history and ancient art.

Our selection includes some fine examples of professionally mounted and framed art with themes relating to antiquity, such as this 19th Century English print with scenes of classical mythology -

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i368.html

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i390.html

We also offer unframed artwork with antiquarian themes, such as the marvelous 1820 print above illustrating Greek vases from the collection of Sir Henry Englefield.

Antiquarian books are always a favorite, such as this copy of Babylonian Life and History by the famed Biblical archaeologist E. Wallis Budge, printed in 1897 -

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i249.html

For the reader with a more general interest in the ancient world, we offer selections of popular books, such as this group of 3 books dealing with Late Antiquity -

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i335.html

And for the antiquities collector we always have a substantial number of antiquities auction catalogs from the London and New York auction houses. These are difficult to find once the auction has ended and expensive to purchase in advance. As many antiquities circulate through the market over the years, serious collectors are keen to acquire these groups of catalogs. In addition to being fully illustrated, these catalogs help to establish provenance for the objects included. Here is an example of one set of catalogs for sale on our site -

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i432.html

View all our offerings in our Books, Publications and Art section here: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c25_p1.html

Sadly, this is Typical

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/488535/20130710/lavezzi-pompeii-statue-bust-naples-psg.htm
Sadly, this incident, while widely reported because it involves a prominent European football star, illustrates many flaws in Italian cultural patrimony laws. These laws are often enforced unevenly, with the powerful and influential escaping prosecution. They tend to focus on punishment alone as a solution to the problem of looting or unauthorized ownership of antiquities, rather than following a more rational model that would encourage reporting of finds by the public with financial incentives. And these laws are based solely on outdated nationalistic, emotional arguments that all Roman antiquities, for example, must belong to the modern Italian state, which of course has very little relationship to the vast majority of ancient Roman artifacts. In the case of Pompeii and many other Italian archaeological sites, the near total neglect of these sites, in terms of the Italian government’s overall financial resources, is a disgrace, given the sheer scale of tourism these sites generate. Perhaps I’ll engage in a more detailed examination of these issues using this blog in the near future.

Herculaneum: A Personal Photo Essay

We've created a new Travelogues entry on our website, a simple photo essay on Herculaneum. Here's the link --
http://www.clioancientart.com/id22.html