Court rules Italy can seize Greek statue from US museum

Italy can confiscate an ancient Greek bronze fished from the Adriatic in the 1960s and now in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Europe’s top rights court ruled on Thursday.

The sculpture, which represents a nude Greek athlete and is known in the United States as ‘Victorious Youth’, was found off Italy’s Adriatic coast in 1964 but then vanished until 1977, when it was purchased by the Getty Museum for $3.9 million, AFP reported.

“We’ve been working flat out” to get it back, Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said.

The European Court of Human Rights said the statue belonged to the country’s cultural heritage because of its recovery by an Italian-flagged ship.

But the museum argued that attempts to confiscate it went against the fundamental right to property, telling AFP: “If necessary, the Getty will continue to defend its possession of the statue in all relevant courts.”

Investigation opened into Fentanyl in heroin

Perugia’s public prosecutor’s office on Thursday opened an investigation into Italy’s first confirmed presence of synthetic opioid Fentanyl in a dose of heroin, Ansa reported.

“I am concerned about what is emerging and I want to try to understand if it is a sporadic event or if there have been other similar episodes,” Perugia Chief Prosecutor Raffaele Cantone said.

The investigation came after police found that Fentanyl had been used as a cutting substance in a dose of heroin seized several weeks earlier.

Up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, Fentanyl has been linked to a rising number of fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the US in recent years.

Storms to break by Saturday

High winds and heavy rain will continue in many areas of northern and central Italy on Friday, but weather conditions were set to improve from Saturday, forecasters said.

“Friday will be wet and windy again but the sun will start peeping back on Saturday and it will get warmer on Sunday,” founder of weather website IlMeteo.it Antonio Sano’ told news agency Ansa.

Parts of Milan and the surrounding province woke up to localised flooding on Thursday morning following intense rainfall throughout the night.

Severe weather also caused a large tree to fall and damage three balconies in Rome’s Via Latina on Thursday, Ansa reported.