After a four-year investigation, Italian authorities have busted an international antiquities trafficking network that used a fake auction house to sell the illegally excavated cultural artifacts.

Early Wednesday morning, Carabinieri investigators arrested four people in various locations in the Italian regions of Puglia and Lazio, authorities said in a statement. The arrests came as part of an investigation, codenamed “Art Sharing,” launched in 2020. The Carabinieri said 32 people remain under investigation.

“[The investigation] led to the disruption of a criminal syndicate dedicated to clandestine excavation, operated by tomb robbers and expert thieves, for the illicit seizure and theft of cultural goods belonging to the [Italy’s] indisputable heritage,” authorities said in a statement.

Investigators accused the alleged crime syndicate of fencing the looted cultural artifacts using a “well-established logistical network” that included forging provenance documentation to make the origin of the artifacts appear lawful. They also allegedly used secret codes, fake identities and hired couriers to export the artifacts from Italian territory.

An investigator with Italy’s Carabinieri police force is seen handling looted items that were seized after an international antiquities trafficking network was busted. Courtesy of Arma de Carabinieri.

“In particular, the entire illicit traffic of archaeological artifacts was managed through a fictitious auction house called Costa’s Gallery, based in Antwerp, Belgium, traceable to two of the individuals,” the Carabinieri said. The fake auction house purported to sell mainly Apulian and Etruscan goods to buyers across Europe and the Americas.

With coordination through Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Italian police worked with their counterparts in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and San Marino to carry out search orders that led to the seizure of the artifacts. The recovered items were all described as important archaeological artifacts purchased from the “nonexistent” auction house.

The recovered items include about 300 decorated ceramic vases that notably included two red-figure Hydria, or water jars; three black-painted Kylix; two red-figure lidded vases known as Lekanis; and a trilobite-mouthed wine jug. They also recovered more than 200 silver and bronze coins from various eras, many minted in ancient Apulia region, as well as bronze rings and pendants.

Among the more exceptional artifacts seized are an Imperial Roman marble sarcophagus recovered from Belgium and 15 Etruscan sculptures found in Spain, along with other ceramic finds dating from 500 BCE to 201 BCE. Authorities also confiscated various metal detectors, excavation equipment, false provenance documents, and a computer.

“The thriving commercial network, in procuring a huge profit for the organization, caused significant damage to the national cultural and archaeological heritage with the dispersion of historical evidence that is now irrecoverable,” the Carabinieri said, suggesting the possibility that there may be items the group trafficked that cannot be found.

The bust comes just weeks after the Carabinieri seized an illegal excavation site of an Etruscan necropolis between the Tuscan towns of Chiusi and Città della Pieve where they recovered several objects bound for the black market and worth an estimated $8.5 million. Police did not provide an estimate for the value of the most recently recovered goods. The previous investigation, launched in April, led to the identification of two suspects who are facing charges of theft and the receiving of cultural goods.