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It is unique from the point of view of both archaeological and artistic: a piece of extraordinary importance, which is part of the permanent exhibition "Policromie del sublime": a collection of marble finds from the 4th century B.C. from a Dauna tomb located in the territory of Ascoli Satriano.
The precious marbles, with an almost translucent consistency, come from Aphrodisias of Caria in present-day Turkey and are proof of the commercial relations between southern Italy and the Greek Empire, as well as evidence of the splendour that reached the Daunian civilization. The so-called Griffins are an extraordinary sculpture (95 cm high and 148 cm long) and were the support of a ritual table (Trapezophoros). The scene depicts a pair of griffins, fantastic animals with the body of a lion and the head of a dragon and eagle wings, while biting a deer now collapsed on the ground. Because of the drama of the sculpted subject, it is thought that the tomb from which it comes, in addition to being of a component of the Dauna nobility, was of a young woman who died in tragic circumstances. The quality of the work and its state of conservation arouse wonder: the pathos it provokes is entirely modern. Surprising is the use of colour, still partially appreciable: from the yellow-beige tones of the bodies of the animals, to the red of the blood, from the blue of the wings of the griffins, to the green of the ground and of the rock.
History of the underground excavation - polychromy of the sublime
Between 1975 and 1976 a team of grave robbers retrieved in an underground excavation some artifacts from a princely tomb. In addition to the pieces in the exhibition Policromie del sublime there was a statue of Apollo (now in the museum of Ascoli). Among these grave robbers there is a Sabino Berardi who does not hesitate to cut down the griffins to be able to carry them in the trunk of his car.
One of the grave robbers' cars is intercepted by the Guardia di Finanza and its contents are deposited in the Superintendence to be forgotten for decades in a warehouse; the rest of the finds (including griffins and Apollo) They arrive in Geneva, purchased by the art dealer Giacomo Medici.
Medici sells the main pieces at the Getty Museum in Malibu.
Several years later, a curator of the Museum intuits that these pieces have an unclear origin, if not illegal; shortly after Sabino Berardi, seriously ill, decides to confess the theft of the precious finds to the Carabinieri; therefore an investigation by the Carabinieri of the Group for the Protection of Cultural Heritage that will lead to the identification of the works of art and the process of Marion True (curator of the Getty Museum at the time of purchase) and Rober Hecty (the intermediary between Medici and the Getty Museum) and the same Medici, who used to shoot polaroid with all the illegally purchased artifacts.
In 2007, the artifacts returned to Italy.
