vase

CREATION

About 515 B.C.E., the Euphronios Krater was born in the Keramikos, or potters’ quarter, just outside the walls of ancient Athens, Greece.

LOOTED

The Euphronios vase was entombed in the tomb in Cerveteri, in the Greppe Sant’Angelo necropolis.

In December of 1971, the tomb in was looted, then the vase was illegally exported to Switzerland where it was extensively repaired.

DETAILS SHOWING REPAIR

ON VIEW AT THE MET

It was then sold to the Met, for $1 million. The vase stayed in view from the 1970s on to the first decade of the 21st century; the Met had over 4.5 million visitors in 2007, the last year of its stay.

The pot’s initial display at the MMA was a great media event. It was described as the finest Greek pot to survive from antiquity; the director of the museum at the time called it an ancient Leonardo da Vinci.

The Euphronios vase became one of the many focal points of the museum’s collection.

RETURNING HOME

In 2008, it was returned to Rome, and is now in view at the National Archaeological Museum of Cerveteri.

The Euphronios vase is now truly home, back in the region where in antiquity it had been cherished as an elite Greek import, regarded with wonder in lively social ceremony, and chosen to accompany its owner into the afterlife and eternity.
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