LIVIA, wife of the Roman Emperor Augustus, has poked
her head into the public arena yet again. Only a few
months after a marble portrait of the murderous
matriarch, portrayed on television in I, Claudius by
Sian Phillips, was returned from Oxford to its home in
Croatia, another and similar head has been rescued
from the stolen-art market and taken back to Albania.
The Albanian head, in superb condition apart from a
broken nose, was found in the theatre of Butrint, on
the southern coast opposite Corfu, during excavations
70 years ago. "The statue was one of six which had
formed an imperial portrait group in a grand stage
building," said Professor Richard Hodges, who is
directing new research at the site.
The head was stolen from the Butrint museum in 1991,
during the chaos that accompanied the fall of Ramez
Alia, the last Communist dictator of Albania. It was
apparently smuggled to Greece and then to Switzerland,
Professor Hodges said, and purchased by Robert Hecht,
a New York art dealer.
When he offered it for sale in his catalogue in 1995,
the head was recognised by American scholars, and Mr
Hecht declared his willingness to return it. It was
recently flown back to Tirana, where it will stay in
the Institute of Archaeology's museum until the
Butrint museum has been renovated and rendered secure .
