Amazing Artifact Used As Coffee Table For Decades:

Written By BlabberBuzz | Thursday, 25 November 2021 05:15 AM
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Amazing Artifact Used As Coffee Table For Decades:

The Roman Empire may have crumbled 1,500 years ago, but the worldwide kingdom's memory is still alive and strong today. A valuable Roman mosaic from the time of Emperor Caligula, approximately 2,000 years ago, was astonishingly used as a coffee table for nearly 50 years in a Manhattan apartment. Dario Del Bufalo, an Italian marble expert, detailed how he discovered the rare item in a clip from Sunday's broadcast of CBS's "60 Minutes."

The mosaic in question — which also includes green and white marble — was used in flooring on Caligula's ships, according to Del Bufalo's 2013 book "Porphyry," which studied the purple-red volcanic rock that Roman emperors employed for their art and architecture.

The mosaic in question — which also includes green and white marble — was used in flooring on Caligula's ships, according to Del Bufalo's 2013 book "Porphyry," which studied the purple-red volcanic rock that Roman emperors employed for their art and architecture.

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Del Bufalo overheard a guy and a lady say she had the 412-square-foot mosaic he spoke about in his book while signing copies of his book in New York in 2013.

“There was a lady with a young guy with a strange hat that came to the table,” Del Bufalo told CBS, and it turned out the woman was gallery owner Helen Fioratti. “And he told her, ‘What a beautiful book. Oh, Helen, look, that’s your mosaic.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, that’s my mosaic.’ ”

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Fioratti told the New York Times in 2017 that she and her husband bought the ancient treasure from an Italian noble family in the 1960s. The artwork was moved to the United States, where it was utilized as a coffee table in the couple's Park Avenue apartment.

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“It was an innocent purchase,” Fioratti explained to the outlet at the time. “It was our favorite thing and we had it for 45 years.”

Because it had been suspected that the mosaic had been stolen from a museum, it was confiscated in 2017 and returned to Rome, where it is now on exhibit at the Museum of Roman Ships in Nemi.

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“I felt very sorry for her,” Del Bufalo said. “But I couldn’t do anything different, knowing that my museum in Nemi is missing the best part that went through the centuries, through the war, through a fire, and then through an Italian art dealer, and finally could go back to the museum.

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“That’s the only thing I felt I should have done,” he concluded.

Del Bufalo also stated that he intends to construct a replica of the table for Fioratti and her husband to display in their home. “I think my soul would feel a little better,” he said.

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