The Curse of Ancient Pompeii: Why Tourists Return Stolen Artifacts En masse

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The ancient Roman city of Pompeii was built at the foot of Vesuvius. In 79 AD, a terrible tragedy occurred - a dormant volcano erupted. As a result of this disaster, more than two thousand people died. Every year, Pompeii is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world. Many people cannot resist the temptation to take something for themselves as a souvenir. Most often, fragments of mosaics and ceramics are stolen. The thieves subsequently return the stolen artifacts to the museum, enclosing letters of apology. They all claim that they are being pursued by the "curse of Pompeii" …

The museum, which displays artifacts stolen by frivolous tourists, and then returned, is constantly replenished. Modern thieves send the stolen back, hoping to get rid of the misfortunes that haunt them. It looks like a curse may indeed exist in this tragic city!

One of the latest packages has caught the attention of the press. One day, a travel agent arrived at the police station with a package and a letter. These were stolen pottery fragments and mosaics from Pompeii. The letter was from a Canadian named Nicole.

The woman said that at the age of 21 she visited Pompeii and decided to take home a souvenir from there as a keepsake. Nicole writes that she was then too young and stupid. Now she is thirty-six and throughout all these years she and her family are simply haunted by troubles and failures.

At first she became seriously ill and was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then the family was overtaken by financial problems that have not yet been resolved. Nicole blames everything on the items that she took out of Pompeii. “I apologize to the gods,” she wrote in her letter.

The woman directly connects the pain and suffering of the inhabitants of Pompeii with her own misfortunes. She tried to fix it this way. Nicole also wrote that she wants to return to the lost city and ask for forgiveness face to face.

Whether the long-dead victims of Vesuvius will hear her words is a question for the higher powers. AD 79 was a fateful date in human history. The erupting volcano destroyed the landscape and killed people with spilled lava, molten rocks and deadly gas.

Pompeii and neighboring Herculaneum have gone down in history as places of death and destruction. Ironically, there were times of boom in the development of this region. There were very rich and fertile black soils. This, of course, was related to previous eruptions, which the residents only learned about when it was already too late.

Human remains in Pompeii cannot speak. Archaeological evidence shows how they lived … and, unfortunately, how they met their tragic and sad end.

At the end of last year, news broke that the bodies of the master and his slave had been found lying prostrate in a cave. Most likely, people tried to hide from the wrath of Vesuvius. Unfortunately, they could not escape their fiery fate. The details of the clothing were revealed through plaster casts. Scientists made them using prints of bodies in ash as a shape.

In 2015, Superintendent Massimo Osanna, director of the archaeological park in Pompeii, showed the public the artifacts he had received back, stolen by tourists, and their written apologies. Given the massive thefts that take place on the territory of Pompeii, it was decided to create a permanent exhibition of these items and related remorse.

The collection includes a huge number of returned artifacts and letters with sorrowful stories of the curse. It is a unique landmark. There were cases when heirs sent what their parents had stolen. According to these people, responsibility was a heavy burden on their consciences.

Too many take the threat of a curse too seriously. People also often fall prey to their own imaginations and fantasies. For example, the return of a bronze statue of the Pompeian banker Cecilio Giocondo, missing back in 1987.

The thief expressed fear and regret in the letter, referring to all kinds of misfortunes in the family. As it turned out, there was no need to worry … In fact, it was just a reproduction!

One married couple, who identified themselves as Alastain and Kimberly, took stones from Pompeii and the volcano itself. The letter, where they poured out all their heartfelt repentance, says: “We are very sorry. Please forgive us for this terrible act."

It is a sad fact that history will always be plundered by the present. In this case, however, it looks like things are going back to normal. The problem of "curse" can exist only in the minds of people, but the result from this becomes no less effective …

History reliably keeps its secrets, but scientists sometimes manage to unravel them. Read our article on how a new discovery under the ice of Antarctica helped to find out what this continent looked like 90 million years ago.