A feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer revives the mystery of the Penn Museum’s gold—whether it came from Troy, and how it got to America—and in the process reveals that the dealer behind the sale was the very same man who brought the Euphronios krater to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bob Hecht.
“Hecht confirmed that he was indeed the source of Penn’s Trojan-style gold, with Allen acting as his agent. Hecht easily recalled the pieces and proclaimed them “beautiful.” He said he had purchased them from another dealer, George Zakos, who is dead… He said Zakos, who lived in Switzerland, had not shared the objects’ history. ‘He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask,’ Hecht said. ‘I thought it was beautiful, and I thought it was genuine.’”
Tracing the Gold

Thomas Hoving, the former Met director who brought us King Tut and the Euphronios krater, has died. He was 78. Hoving loved an adventure. And he made the mummies dance.
NYT: Hoving, Who Shook Up the Met, Dies at 78

An era in the study and collecting of Greek vases has come to an end with the death of Dietrich von Bothmer, whose modern career became intertwined with the ancient work of the artist Euphronios. From the first Euphronios he saw (in Berlin), which inspired his vocation, to the famous krater he helped the Metropolitan Museum of Art buy in 1972, to the one that got away—the krater’s smaller twin chalice, which he twice tried to acquire (in 1973 and 1990)—Dietrich von Bothmer’s biography became inseparable from that of the Athenian master and his pottery. While a chapter has come to a close, neither man’s story is over. The documents, photos and vase fragments he’s left behind in his files (NYT photo, above) and other archives may allow the curator and professor to keep illuminating the world of ancient art, even after his passing.
NYT: Dietrich von Bothmer, Curator and Art Historian

Curator Oscar White Muscarella, the longtime in-house critic of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reviews a new book on the Met as a starting point to dredge up a few decades of alleged misdeeds and “clandestine acts.”
Muscarella: The Met/Rogues’ Gallery

While the Rome appeals court affirmed Giacomo Medici’s conviction for antiquities trafficking, it absolved him on charges of handling objects that ended up at the Met—on what appears to be a procedural technicality. Only the full, written sentence, expected within three months, will explain what this means for the Euphronios krater.
Bloomberg: Rome Court Upholds Medici Conviction