An American man has returned 30 antiquities to Italy after reading a Guardian report about a compatriot who sent 19 antiquities back to their countries of origin amid growing coverage of looted ancient artefacts. Jay Stanley, who lives in Ben Lomond, CA, has handed over vases and figurines dating from the sixth to third centuries BC. He came across them in a cupboard at the home of his father, John, who died last October. They brought back childhood memories of growing up in Italy: his father was a music teacher and his mother a school librarian, and they lived for 10 years in Naples. Stanley, a database engineer for an AI startup, has no idea where the antiquities were acquired but suggested they may have been from one of Naples’s open-air markets. His parents were always taking him to museums, inspiring his passion for history and archaeology, and he realized that the antiquities may have come from illicit excavations originally as they had no collecting history. He said: “It was in the back of my mind: what am I going to do with these things?” Stanley found answers in a Guardian article about John Gomperts, from Washington, who last year gave up ancient artefacts he had inherited from his grandmother. Those pieces also had no collecting history, and Gomperts had been concerned about the implications of having potentially looted antiquities in his possession. 

Jay Stanley dalla California ha restituito 30 reperti storici all'Italia dopo aver letto l’articolo di un uomo, John Gomperts, di Washington, che ha restituito 19 reperti in suo possesso. Nell'articolo, Gomperts spiega di averli ereditati da sua nonna e che non sapeva che avessero un valore storico. Si rende conto che questi reperti sono stati rubati, così, ha deciso di restituirli perché non li voleva più in suo possesso. Questa storia, che è stata pubblicata sulla rivista "Guardian", ha influenzato Jay Stanley a fare lo stesso. Stanley ha restituito vasi e figurine che risalgono a più di tre secoli a.C. Stanley ha trovato questi reperti storici negli armadi a muro della casa di suo padre, morto in ottobre. Le antichità ricordavano la loro vita a Napoli, in Italia, dove suo padre insegnava musica e sua madre lavorava in biblioteca. Stanley ha vissuto a Napoli per dieci anni e durante questo periodo i suoi genitori lo hanno portato nei musei e nei mercati. Stanley pensa che i reperti in suo possesso siano cose acquistate nei mercati, e si è reso conto che forse provenivano da scavi illegali. Quando Stanley ha letto l'articolo di Gomperts, ha deciso di fare lo stesso e restituire le cose.