Controversial classical antiquities dealer Robert Hecht has died at age 92 only weeks after his trial for trafficking in antiquities ended as a result that the statute of limitation had expired. Of Hecht a former curator said: could be "charming, very, very intelligent, but he could also turn, be very hostile, very sarcastic, very sinister".
One of Hecht's most important sales was the 6th century bc Etruscan masterpiece known as the Euphronios krater which Hecht sold to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art for a million dollars in 1972. The terracotta krater is the most complete of the 27 known surviving pieces painted by the ancient Greek artist Euphronios.
In Hecht's unpublished biography he says he bought the krater from sources who had just dug it up from tombs outside of Rome. Hecht also provided many pieces to the John Paul Getty Museum and other museums and collectors.
In 2006 the M.E.T. signed an agreement with Italy and returned the vase along with a number of other pieces while the Getty museum returned dozens of Antiquities acquired through Hecht including last year a limestone and marble statue of Aphrodite.
