ANOTHER TREASURE RETURNS

The Prosecutor's Office of Enna has taken into possession a Greek vase - a polychrome lekanis - which dates from the second or third century BC, it was revealed today.  The vase, found in a private collection in Lisbon, had been illegally excavated and removed from Italy, then seems to have travelled to Portugal via Australia.  The date of its disappearance from Sicily is not known.

It has been emphasised that Italian police had the full cooperation of the Australian and Portuguese authorities and it is likely that the vase will be returned to its rightful home, the Museum of Centuripe in the Province of Enna.

Welcome home, beauty.

GOODBYE TO A "FATHER OF ARCHAEOLOGY"

The death in Rome of the 85-year-old  teacher, researcher and archaeologist Antonio Di Vita was announced yesterday. Born in Chiaramonte Gulfi [Ragusa] Prof. Di Vita taught at the Universities of Palermo, Perugia and Macerata [Marche], where he was first Director of the Faculty of Arts and later Rector.  From 1977 - 2000 he was Director of the Italian School of Archaeology in Athens.

Antonio Di Vita was largely responsible for twentieth century excavations at Kamarina, which he began in 1958, thus following in the steps of the famous archaeologist Paolo Orsi, who worked on the site until 1911.

Speaking yesterday, Giovanni Di Stefano, Director of the Kamarina Archaeological Park, said that Prof. Di Vita had been "one of the fathers of Italian archaeology and a great Sicilian."

Ancient tombs at Kamarina