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An example of a typical Egyptian sphinx. Egyptian Museum, Torino, Italy. Image by Tim Adams. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Italian police recover ancient Egyptian sculpture

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
An example of a typical Egyptian sphinx. Egyptian Museum, Torino, Italy. Image by Tim Adams. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
An example of a typical Egyptian sphinx. Egyptian Museum, Torino, Italy. Image by Tim Adams. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

ROME (AP) – An Egyptian granite sculpture of a sphinx that risked ending up on the black market for antiquities is destined instead for a Rome museum.

Maj. Massimo Rossi of the Italian Tax Police says the sphinx, perhaps as old as the fourth century B.C., was found on the outskirts of Rome last week. It was in a box hidden in a greenhouse near an ancient Etruscan necropolis.

Rossi said Thursday that the sphinx, which is roughly 2 feet tall and 4 feet long, likely adorned a first century B.C. Roman villa, in keeping with the fashion then for Egyptian sculpture as decoration.

He said an Italian and a Romanian are being investigated in the probe of suspected illicit trafficking in antiquities. Villa Giulia museum, which specializes in Etruscan antiquities, will host the sphinx.

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AP-WF-12-06-12 1533GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

An example of a typical Egyptian sphinx. Egyptian Museum, Torino, Italy. Image by Tim Adams. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
An example of a typical Egyptian sphinx. Egyptian Museum, Torino, Italy. Image by Tim Adams. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.