Giacomo Medici (art dealer)

[1] After a long-running major investigation by the Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (or TPC, the unit of the Italian Carabinieri (military police) specializing in protecting that country's cultural heritage), Giacomo Medici was eventually charged, tried and convicted for his key role in an extensive and highly lucrative international antiquities smuggling ring.

[2] On September 13, 1995, Italian and Swiss police raided the Editions Services offices in Geneva, Switzerland which were located in Port Franc, "the special commercial zone near the airport where international goods can be stored, bought, and sold, discreetly and tax-free".

[2] A notable object linked to the Medici gang is the "Sarpedon krater", a unique, signed Attic red-figure wine vessel dating from the late 6th century BCE, which was painted by Euphronios, one of the most famous ceramic artists of the ancient world.

[citation needed] Authorities found "hundreds of pieces of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art—including a set of Etruscan dinner plates valued at $2 million...voluminous sales records and correspondence between Medici and dealers in London and New York; and finally, binders and boxes containing thousands of photographs...of ancient objects...the archive included sequential photographs of single pieces from the moment they came out of the ground...to their finished, reconstructed appearance at the time they entered the art market and were sold for tens of thousands, and occasionally millions, of dollars.

[1] The forensic archaeologists investigating the Medici documents even discovered shocking photographic evidence that the gang had illegally excavated and looted at least one previously-undiscovered Roman villa in Pompeii, ruthlessly hacking several complete frescoes off the walls in laptop-sized pieces in order to steal them.