[MSN] Italy. Around 100 stolen paintings, statues, letters and manuscripts recovered by Italian art police from the black market have gone on show at Castel S. Angelo.

[MSN]

Culture: Art police hauls on display.

Around 100 stolen paintings, statues, letters and manuscripts recovered by Italian art police from the black market have gone on show at Castel S. Angelo. The annual display highlights the behind-the-scenes operations in which police have retrieved a wide range of works, from ancient Roman artefacts to contemporary art canvases.

This year’s haul includes what art police believe to be one of the most valuable recoveries of recent years: the 2nd-century head of Roman Empress Faustina the Elder (105-140 AD), which went missing in 1961 just nine months after archaeologists uncovered it at the ancient Roman theatre of Minturnae in southern Lazio. The marble head of Faustina, who was the wife of Emperor Antoninus Pius and the adopted mother of Marcus Aurelius, returned to Italy earlier this month after police tracked it down in New York. A temple to Faustina and her husband still stands in the Roman Forum, where it was built by the grief-stricken Antoninus Pius when she died and later rededicated to them both by Marcus Aurelius.

Also on view are Renaissance works by Cristoforo Sacco, Ludovico Carracci and Guercino; a letter by 19th-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi; and paintings by modern artists Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall and Emilio Vedova. The recovered works stay on show until June 26.

Castel S. Angelo, Lungotevere S. Angelo, tel. 066819111,09.00-19.00. Mon closed. www.castelsantangelo.com.

http://www.wantedinrome.com/