Hoving, Thomas (2001d), ‘Super art gems of New York City: The “Hot Pot” V – Utterly unexpected good news’, artnet.com. They obtained documents from Sarrafian confirming that he had received payment for the krater of $909,000 in Swiss francs on 25 October 1971.
Kennedy, Randy and Eakin, Hugh (2006), ‘Met agrees tentatively to return vase in ’08’, Mellow, James (1972), ‘A new (6th Century B.C.) The krater arrived back in Italy on 18 January 2008, where it was put on display with other returned objects at the exhibition Felch, Jason and Frammolino, Ralph (2005), ‘Italy says it’s proven vase at Met was looted’, Gage, Nicholas (1973a), ‘How the Metropolitan acquired “the finest Greek vase there is”’, Gage, Nicholas (1973b), ‘Farmhand tells of finding Met’s vase in Italian tomb’, Van Gelder, Lawrence (1973), ‘Odyssey of the vase: Contradictions and conflicts’, Hoving, Thomas (2001a), ‘Super art gems of New York City: The grand and glorious “Hot Pot” – Will Italy snag it?’, Hoving, Thomas (2001b), ‘Super art gems of New York City: “Hot Pot” part II – Unexpectedly, the money source opens up’, artnet.com. They recovered a handwritten ‘memoir’ of Hecht’s, setting out an autobiographical account of his life in the antiquities trade. The Euphronios krater, described as one of the finest antiquities ever obtained by the Met, has been a source of controversy since the museum acquired it 33 … Also known as: Hot Pot. It was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 for the then record-breaking price of $1 million, and is now thought to have been excavated illegally in Italy in 1971. “Repatriation of Greek Art Treasures.” Euphronios’ work contains the mythological figure of Zeus’ son, Sarpedon, being carried by Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) with the help of Hermes (The Messenger), all rendered in the red-figure style. Gage 1973b, 1973c; Gelder 1973; Hoving 2001d, 2001e). What makes the Euphronios krater so exceptional? The truth was not revealed until 1995 when the Swiss warehouse of antiquities launderer Giacomo Medici was raided to expose thousands of stolen objects and the records of their sales to museums and collectors. The krater was extremely desirable as it is one of the few known examples of work by the ancient artist Euphronios… The Euphronios krater, a renowned red-figured Greek vase from the sixth century B.C., is widely believed to have been illegally excavated in 1971 from an Etruscan tomb near Rome. Although the evidence for illegal excavation and trade was still largely circumstantial, the Metropolitan’s director Philipe de Montebello clearly thought it was convincing when he was quoted as saying that it was ‘highly probable’ that the vessel had been stolen from an Etruscan tomb (Kennedy and Eakin 2006). Hecht had simply taken the provenance and documentation from the Sarrafian/Bunker Hunt krater and attached it to the illegally-excavated and better-preserved Sarpedon krater bought by the Metropolitan. First was a letter dated 10 July 1971, written by Sarrafian to Hecht, in which Sarrafian declared that he would deliver the vase to Hecht in expectation of a final sale price of $1 million. In 1971, an ancient Greek krater, a vase-like object used for mixing water and wine, was excavated from an Etruscan tomb near Rome and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for $1 million the following year. Medici then sold the krater to Robert Hecht, an American antiquities dealer, who in turn sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for $1 million in 1972.After the discovery of the krater’s true provenance, the Italian government began requesting the return of the artifact to its homeland.
The Metropolitan’s legal team also collected affidavits from Bürki, confirming that he had received a fragmentary krater from Sarrafian in August 1971, and a photographer in Basel who had seen the fragments in September 1971 (Gage 1973c; Hoving 1993: 333; Hoving 2001d). Although the Euphronios Krater was considered to be one of the most important pieces of art ever acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it was witnessed by millions of visitors, in 2008 the Met reached a deal with the Italian government.