Stolen mosaic that once adorned Emperor Caligula's lavish pleasure barge returned to Italy after being used as a coffee table

The Emperor Caligula and the lost - now found- mosaic
The Emperor Caligula and the lost - now found- mosaic

A mosaic that once adorned a lavish pleasure barge built for the Emperor Caligula, who was reputed to have dressed as a woman and appointed his horse as a consul, has been returned to Italy decades after it was stolen and smuggled to the United States.

The multi-coloured mosaic had been bought in good faith by a Manhattan antiques dealer, who was unaware of its provenance and for decades used it as a coffee table.

The well-preserved piece of marble flooring is believed to have decorated the bridge of one of two giant ceremonial ships that Caligula had built so that he could take cruises on a lake near Rome.

One of Rome’s most eccentric and sadistic emperors, he allegedly slept with his sisters, had prisoners fed to wild animals and declared himself a living god. The mosaic was recovered from Lake Nemi, in the Alban Hills outside the capital, between 1928 and 1932 during an archaeological operation that was ordered by Benito Mussolini. 

It was put on display in a museum inaugurated by Mussolini in 1940.  But in 1944, during fighting between the Allies and the retreating Germans, a fire broke out and the museum burned to the ground. The mosaic may have been stolen during the chaos of war.

Detectives from a unit of Italy’s Carabinieri police force, which specialises in recovering stolen artefacts, tracked the mosaic down to New York with the help of US authorities.

An 18th-century print of how one of Caligula's barges may have looked.  
An 18th-century print of how one of Caligula's barges may have looked.   Credit: Getty

It had been bought in the 1960s by Helen Fioratti, an antiques dealer, and her husband Nereo Fioratti, a foreign correspondent for an Italian newspaper, and kept in their Park Avenue apartment. They said they bought the piece in good faith from an aristocratic family and for years used it as a coffee table.

At the request of Italian police, the mosaic was seized by the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan. The Fiorattis said they would not contest the seizure because of the expense and time it would entail. 

The priceless item has now been given back to Italy and will be returned to the Museum of Roman Ships on the banks of Lake Nemi.

The recovery of the mosaic, as well as a collection of Roman coins, medieval manuscripts and vases dating to the 4th century BC, was announced by Dario Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister.

“The United States has returned to Italy cultural heritage objects that came from illegal excavations or thefts,” the minister said. 

“Thanks to the investigative work of the Carabinieri, everything will be put back where it came from.”

The mosaic, which Italian police tracked down to New York, once decorated the Emperor Caligula's pleasure barge
The mosaic, which Italian police tracked down to New York, once decorated the Emperor Caligula's pleasure barge Credit: Carabinieri

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said returning long lost relics to their rightful owners was  "at the core" of his office's mission to end the looting of rare cultural treasures.

“These items may be beautiful, storied, and immensely valuable to collectors, but willfully disregarding the provenance of an item is effectively offering tacit approval of a harmful practice that is, fundamentally, criminal.”

The intricate design of the mosaic attests to how richly-decorated Caligula’s barges were believed to have been. They were essentially floating palaces, decorated with gold and marble, where the onboard entertainment may have extended to orgies.

The 240ft-long vessels had richly-decorated prows and were said to have been equipped with sails made of purple silk. According to Suetonius, the Roman historian, the barges featured “ten banks of oars, the poops of which blazed with jewels…(they were) filled with ample baths, galleries and saloons and supplied with a great variety of vines and fruit trees.”

The mosaic is believed to have come from the bridge of one of the barges, which would have been reserved for Caligula himself.

As well as the remains of the two barges that were recovered during Mussolini’s rule, there is believed to be a long-lost third vessel buried in the mud of the lake bed.

A Renaissance imagination of what Caligula may have looked like.
A Renaissance imagination of what Caligula may have looked like. Credit: Getty/Hulton

Earlier this year Italian divers and archaeologists began searching for the fabled third barge, using sonar and a ground-penetrating scanner.   So far, they have found nothing.

It is not known how the huge wooden boats ended up on the bottom of the lake. It may have been that they simply deteriorated over time and became waterlogged, or that Caligula’s successor, Emperor Claudius, had them sunk in an attempt to expunge some of the excesses of Caligula’s reign.

The other artefacts returned to Italy include a vase dug up by tomb-raiders at an ancient site in the southern region of Campania. It was exported illegally by an Italian dealer and ended up at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. 

An ancient amphora that came from an illegal dig in Puglia, in the far south of Italy, was found in an art gallery in New York. The recovery of all the artefacts was a result of “extraordinary collaboration” between the Carabinieri and their US counterparts, the police said in a statement.

The other items recovered by the Italian police included this ancient vase from Puglia in southern Italy.
The other items recovered by the Italian police included this ancient vase from Puglia in southern Italy. Credit: Carabinieri

Caligula reigned from 37AD to 41AD and is depicted by many historians as a depraved megalomaniac, although other scholars have pointed out that there is little factual evidence to support many of the more lurid stories about him. 

His short rule came to a bloody end when he was assassinated by officers of the Praetorian Guard, amid a revolt over his domineering behaviour and reckless spending. Born Gaius Caesar Germanicus, as a child he began accompanying his father on military campaigns.

He wore a miniature uniform and boots, earning him the nickname “Caligula”, Latin for "little boots." The name stuck with him for the rest of his life.

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