By Stephen Juris and Brian Remondino ( October 20, 2017, 1:47 PM EDT) -- On July 24, 2017, the New York County District Attorney's Office demanded that the Metropolitan Museum of Art turn over a 2,300-year-old vase, claiming that it had been looted by Italian tomb raiders in the 1970s. Although the Metropolitan Museum of Art had displayed the Greek bell krater in its Greco-Roman galleries for decades, the very next day it delivered the vase to local prosecutors, anticipating its likely return to Italy.[1] This seizure came only a few weeks after the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced a significant settlement with Hobby Lobby requiring forfeiture of thousands of ancient Mesopotamian artifacts smuggled into the U.S. through sources in Israel and the United Arab Emirates.[2] Although prosecutions, forfeiture proceedings, and private litigation involving contraband art and antiquities are by no means a new phenomenon, this basic fact pattern has become increasingly common as museums, dealers, and collectors are being held to account for the artifacts and fine art in their collections.[3]...