The trial of Robert E. Hecht Jr., the alleged mastermind of an international black market in ancient art, ended with no verdict this week when a three-judge panel in Rome found the time allotted for the trial had expired.

Hecht, a 92-year-old Baltimore native now confined to bed at his home in Paris, has cut a wide swath through the art world since the 1950s, supplying museums and collectors around the world with some of the finest examples of ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan art.

"I have no idea of where an object was excavated," he said in a phone interview on Thursday. "It could have been excavated 100 years ago, it could have been excavated an hour ago."

Throughout that colorful career, Hecht has been dogged by allegations that his wares had been recently looted from archaeological sites and smuggled out of their homeland. It was a claim he never directly denied while maintaining his innocence of the Italian charges, which focused on an alleged conspiracy among dealers he considers rivals.

The ruling brings an ambiguous end to a sweeping investigation that traced relics looted from tombs in Italy through a network of smugglers, dealers and private collectors before appearing on display at museums in the United States, Europe and beyond.

The criminal case stemming from that investigation has dragged through Italian courts since 2005 and focused on Hecht and two co-defendants: Marion True, the former Getty antiquities curator, and Italian dealer Giacomo Medici.

To read the complete article, see:Italian case against antiquities dealer ends(latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/01
/italian-antiquities-robert-hecht-case-ends.html)

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:QUIZ ANSWER: ROBERT HECHT AND THE MEDICI CONSPIRACY(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n49a15.html)