Italy’s Puzzle Over Treasure

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 39, 16 February 1939, Page 12

Italy’s Puzzle Over Treasure

SOME—ltaly has finally solved the puzzle of who owns the valuable collection of historic coins discovered accidentally in Rome four years ago. Like ancient Gaul, the treasure trove is to be divided into three parts. But it didn't appear so simple in the beginning. Should the workman who made the I discovery have become the owner? Did the coins really belong to the heirs of the former owner of the house where the -discovery was made? Should the Italian State exercise a right to the treasure? Or should the municipality of Rome fall heir to the uncovered gold? The discovery was made in 1933 and the resultant dispute greatly interested the Romans. For many months the local press had devoted entire pages to the matter. It began when the old and unsanitary houses in Via Alessandrina and Via Bonclla were pulled down in order to lay bare the Forums of Trajan and Augustus, and to open up the Via delPlmpero. One of the workmen found that the wall of a small house rang hollow, and a vigorous stroke of his pickax drove in the hidden door of a small cupboard or recess from which there flowed a cascade of gold coins and a few jewels. He and his fellow* woikmen held out their hats to catch the shower of gold. The master of the works and city authorities took charge ■ of the find. On investigation it was found that I the house had belonged to an eccentric antiquary called Martinetti who was accustomed to hide coins and other objects of value in odd places such as secret cupboards, plaster casts of Greek statues and the upholstery of his furniture. His house was conveniently near the Roman Forum, and, in the days when the surveillance was less strict than it is at present, he used to secure numbers of small works of art, pieces of Roman carving and other souvenirs from the excavations, and sell them at high prices to foreign collectors, all of whom were familiar with his house and methods. Many of the coins which poured from the hidden cupboard were of gold, some of them dating as far back as the Roman Empire, though some of them ' were of more recent date. Numbers of them were French “Louis” wrapped in a newspaper dated IS7O. Claims to the ownership of the treasure were made by the labourer who struck the cupboard with his pickas and released the shower of gold; his i r.,. -lab'TTici • •• . era ~ • the same house; the heirs of Francesco I Martinetti who were his legitimate legatees; the Governor of Rome who j had bought the house for demolition: the firm of contractors in charge of all the work on Via dcll’lmpcro; the Italian State, as having a right to treasure-trove. The question has been under discusj sion for three years, and it has now been announced that the claims of all have been disallowed with the exception of Simonetti, the first workman to discover the treasure; the Jacovacci a- ; heirs of Martinetti and the Governor ; of Rome, as actual owner of the pro- : perty at the time of the discovery. The treasure thus is to be divided between them. <s> 4 4 Brown:” . . . and as for the present generation—why, nowadays no daughter develops housemaids’s knee; the most painful thing she gets is tin* Diener’s wrisL<’