[MSN] Italian prosecutors have obtained records and photographs that they claim show the head of an international smuggling syndicate that was behind the illegal excavation of antiquities in Italy had dealt with a Japanese antique art dealer.

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Records tie Japan to art theft / Italian prosecutors discover link to
Japanese antique dealer

Kazuki Matsuura / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

Italian prosecutors have obtained records and photographs that they claim
show the head of an international smuggling syndicate that was behind the
illegal excavation of antiquities in Italy had dealt with a Japanese antique
art dealer, it has been learned.

The Italian prosecutors suspected that a number of antiquities housed at
some museums or owned by individual collectors in Japan might have been
illegally dug up at Italian archaeological sites.

The prosecutors named Gianfranco Becchina, an Italian art dealer, as the
head of the antiquities smuggling syndicate.

One of the prosecutors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Becchina
is from Sicily and is suspected to have links with the Mafia.

The prosecution searched a warehouse owned by Becchina in Basel,
Switzerland, in 2002 and 2005 on suspicion he smuggled illegal items. The
searches found 10,000 photographs of items believed to have been illegally
excavated or stolen, and about 200 bundles of receipts, according to
prosecution sources.

One of the receipts, which detailed a transaction made in April 1991, bore
the names of Becchina and a Japanese antique dealer, leading the prosecutors
to believe the two engaged in trade.