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ARCHAEOLOGY

Excavator hid Roman sarcophagi in home

An excavator has been given a sixth-month jail sentence for hiding sarcophagi and other Roman artefacts in his home, Italian media reported on Friday.

Published: 10 April 2015 10:48 CEST
Excavator hid Roman sarcophagi in home
The sarcophagus pictured is not one of those seized by the police. Sarcophagus photo: Shutterstock

Michele Della Polla, the owner of an excavations company, was sentenced this week after police found prized objects in his home and a storehouse in the Rome area.

Two marble sarcophagi, an oil lamp and tiles were among the items Della Polla’s had chosen to keep instead of reporting them to authorities.

Investigators deemed the artefacts to be “an important testimony to the Roman era (which) could have come from illegal excavations.”

Della Polla said he was unaware of the items’ importance. “I didn’t report anything to the superintendency because I didn’t believe there was anything of historic or artistic value,” he was quoted in Il Messaggero as saying.

The 54-year-old said that some of the items in his home were found over 20 years ago, during excavation works linked to the construction of a church in the Tor Bella Monaca area.

Other valuable pieces were found by a worker, in the Prima Porta area, Della Polla claimed: “The sarcophagi and the other seized objects were found by my employee who died in 2009 during a site accident.”

The man piled up the items and they were forgotten about, Della Polla said. 

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POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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