2,000-year-old mosaic rediscovered as artsy coffee table
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A 2,000-year-old Italian mosaic that disappeared during World War II has emerged almost 7,000 kilometres away, under a cup of coffee.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mosaic, originally commissioned by Emperor Caligula, was found by Italian ancient stone expert Dario Del Bufalo, who retold the story on CBS’s </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">60 Minutes</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Del Bufalo had been giving a lecture about the common rock Roman emperors used and handing out signed copies of his book </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Porphyry</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> when he overheard a man and woman talking about a picture of the long-lost mosaic in the book.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There was a lady with a young guy with a strange hat that came to the table,” Mr Del Bufalo told </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roman-emperor-caligula-coffee-table-60-minutes-2021-11-21/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CBS</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “And he told her, ‘What a beautiful book. Oh, Helen, look, that’s your mosaic.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, that’s my mosaic.’”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After tracking down the unknown woman, Mr Del Bufalo discovered that her name was Helen Fioratti, who lived in New York working as an art dealer and gallery owner.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7846173/mosaic1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/b42ce8f23e804a99b2459ff5741f9575" /></span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">A picture of the mosaic appeared in Dario Del Bufalo’s book ‘Porphyry’. Image: 60 Minutes (YouTube)</span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an interview with </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>The New York Times</em></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Ms Fioratti said she and her husband bought the mosaic from a noble Italian family in the 1960s. When it arrived in the US, the couple turned it into a coffee table.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It was an innocent purchase,” she told the publication. “It was our favourite thing and we had it for 45 years.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite the pair’s affection for the piece, the Manhattan district attorney’s office seized the mosaic, saying it had been stolen from a museum.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“These items may be beautiful and storied, and immensely valuable to collectors, but willfully disregarding the provenance of an item is effectively offering tacit approval of a harmful practice that is, fundamentally, criminal,” New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7846174/mosaic2.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/ff5cd4ae477f4bff97977fe52c7c13e5" /></span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The lost mosaic was transformed into a coffee table by the New York art dealer.Image: 60 Minutes (YouTube)</span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Del Bufalo </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://happymag.tv/roman-mosaic-returned-to-museum-after-being-used-as-a-coffee-table/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> he felt very sorry for Ms Fioratti, but that it was important that the mosaic returned to where it belonged.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I couldn’t do anything different, knowing that my museum in Nemi is missing the best part that went through the centuries, through the war, through a fire, and then through an Italian art dealer, and finally could go back to the museum,” he said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He added that he wants to make a copy of the piece for Ms Fioratti to replace her lost coffee table.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s the only thing I felt I should have done,” he said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think my soul would feel a little better.”</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images</span></em></p>
