Long-Lost Mosaic From a âFloating Palaceâ of Caligula Returns Home
A 2,000-year-old artifact that had ended up in the home of a Manhattan antiquities dealer is now in an Italian museum.
A first-century mosaic from the deck of one of Caligulaâs lavish ceremonial ships went on display at a museum in Nemi, Italy, on Thursday.Credit.Paolo Santalucia/Associated Press
March 14, 2021
NEMI, Italy â If stones could speak, the mosaic unveiled recently at an archaeological museum just south of Rome would have quite the tale to tell.
It was crafted in the first century for the deck of one of two spectacularly decorated ships on Lake Nemi that the Emperor Caligula commissioned as floating palaces. Recovered from underwater wreckage in 1895, the mosaic was later lost for decades, only to re-emerge several years ago as a coffee table in the living room of a Manhattan antiques dealer.
A looted mosaic that once decorated a ship of the Roman Emperor Caligula and ended up as a coffee table in New York City finally returned home Thursday, as.
The red, green and white mosaic was recovered from Lake Nemi, Italy, in 1929
It was made around 37–40AD for the bridge of one of Caligula s floating palaces
The boats were torched in WWII, but the mosaic survived until vanishing in 1955
A chance identification led to it being found in the home of a Manhattan couple
Mrs and Mr Fioratti said they bought it in good faith before taking it to the US
After being seized in 2017, the mosaic table is now on display back at Lake Nemi
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