The mosaic was stolen by a Nazi captain during World War II and dates back to between the end of the first century BC and the first century AD.
Pompeii Archaeological Park. The mosaic is about 2,000 years old and was stolen during World War II.
It was then taken by a Nazi captain who was organizing military supplies in Italy during the conflict. The captain brought the mosaic to Germany, where he gave it to a civilian. The man kept the mosaic until his death several years ago, after which his heirs contacted the Carabinieri unit in Rome, which is responsible for protecting cultural heritage.
Having realized that the mosaic was “a work related to the military looting of works of art belonging to the Italian state heritage”, measures were immediately taken to repatriate it to Italy. The Pompeii Archaeological Park was able to establish that the mosaic originated in the “Vesuvius area”, that is, in the vicinity of Vesuvius, whose catastrophic eruption in 79 AD destroyed the nearby city of Pompeii.
However, despite the importance of the mosaic to Pompeii's heritage, many questions remain surrounding it.
The meaning of the returned mosaic
Without a clear idea of where the German captain got the mosaic, many questions about this priceless work of art remain unanswered. The mosaic depicts an erotic scene: a man lies in bed with a woman standing over him. Archaeologists believe that the mosaic probably dates from the late 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE and “may have decorated the floor of a bedroom in a house or villa.”
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