Buying antiquities that might be suspected of having been illicitly dug up recently will henceforth be seen as a huge commercial risk. Its impact extends beyond the Italian borders and is beginning to be perceptible. Put simply, anything known to have reached the market before these matters became a publicly recorded concern in 1970 acquires a new aura of relative respectability. That is already lifting some prices. Conversely, the going will gradually get stickier for other pieces.
Some museums appear to be adjusting their sights accordingly.
Last week several museum acquisitions made at auction seemed well suited to the new mood. The object is actually an enigma. Stylistically, the garment hook has little in common with most Celtic art. Were it not for one or two iconographic features, primarily the helmet of a design known in the Celtic parts of present-day northern Italy, its Celtic connection would not be evident. A scrolling band on the bow of the hook and the plait on a molding separating the foreparts of a lion from the head of a snarling wolf or dog are purely Hellenistic, and so is the naturalistic handling of the face.