The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta has returned five looted objects to Italy amid ongoing investigations into the provenance of the institution’s collection. Two objects, a plate and plate fragment, have been removed from the museum’s digital catalogue and will be repatriated to Italy; three pieces of pottery will remain in Atlanta, but officially reclassified as being “loan by the Italian Republic”. 

The returns follow an investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education , which found that the Carlos Museum currently possesses more than 200 artefacts connected to convicted traffickers. These objects are part of a larger group of more than 500 pieces whose buyers and sellers are known to have had ties to the market for illegal antiquities, acquired reportedly looted artefacts, had objects seized by authorities or returned them to their countries of origin.