Sicilian officials have placed an export ban on twenty-three artworks deemed the island’s most important. Ranging from ancient metalwork and sculpture to baroque painting, the works, many of which have traveled recently to exhibitions in England, the United States, and elsewhere, will no longer leave their home museums except in extraordinary cases.
Antonello da Messina, Virgin Annunciate, c. 1476, Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo
Caravaggio, Adoration of the Magi, 1609, Museo Regionale, Messina; and Raising of Lazarus, 1608-9, Museo Regionale, Messina
A gold libation bowl, or phiale. Credit: Antiquarium di Himera/Regione Siciliana via J. Paul Getty Trust
The Motya Charioteer, ca. 480-470 BCE, Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi