The Guàrdia Urbana of Tarragona and the Mossos d'Esquadra have recovered about 300 pieces of patrimonial value in the home of an archaeologist from Torredembarra and in another dwelling in Tarragona. The man is being investigated for alleged crimes of misappropriation and damage to historical heritage.
The intervention has revealed an unusual contradiction in Tarragona. The archaeologist directed more than 460 interventions, but in 260 of those works, he did not submit the mandatory report of the findings to the Departament de Cultura of the Generalitat, while part of the material ended up stored for 30 years in private properties.
The investigation began with a 17th-century piece exhibited in a bar in Torredembarra
The case began with an email alerting to the exhibition of a 17th-century ceramic inscription from the old beatery of Sant Domènech, known as Ca l'Agapito, in the bar Els quatre panxos in Torredembarra.
In November of last year, agents of the Guàrdia Urbana of Tarragona and the Mossos d'Esquadra inspected the establishment. There they located an amphora neck and fragments of a funerary inscription.
The piece from Ca l'Agapito has high patrimonial value because it identifies the building as a convent of Dominican nuns. Even so, a part of the set is missing and its location remains under investigation.
The investigated person kept 300 boxes and handed over 1,000 coins after the criminal complaint
During the police actions, the investigated person showed the agents 260 boxes stacked in the garden and another 40 in a dwelling in Tarragona. In that material, there were remains from the Roman era of Tarraco and objects accumulated over three decades of work.
Among the intervened pieces are a ceramic plaque from Ca l'Agapito, a capital attributed to the Provincial Forum of Tarraco, a fragment of an epigraphic inscription in Carrara marble from the Roman wall, and an amphora from an excavation in Riudoms.
In addition, the man handed over 1,000 bronze coins from the 19th century minted in Tarragona during the Peninsular War after the agents informed him of the possible criminal consequences. The coins feature reliefs of King Ferran VII or a coat of arms of Catalonia and require restoration.
The police have not found any evidence of sale on the black market. The investigation links the events to the desire to form a personal collection and to professional misconduct.
David Font now focuses on the missing reports from 260 excavations
The volume of recovered material now forces a review of the origin of each batch and its relationship with undocumented excavations. David Font, corporal of the Guàrdia Urbana de Tarragona, referred to that next step.
"Now it will be the job of the Departament de Cultura to try to attribute all the boxes to the excavations for which the reports are missing" - David Font, corporal of the Guàrdia Urbana de Tarragona
The investigated individual had directed more than 460 archaeological interventions in Tarragona. In 260 of them, he did not submit the mandatory report of the findings to the Departament de Cultura.
When that technical work is finished, the Departament de Cultura will study and catalog the recovered material to subsequently return it to the Museu d'Història de Tarragona.