Archaeological assets, protected by historical, artistic and archaeological interest, were seized by the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate of Trapani from an international trafficker of works of art, believed by investigators to be “connected to the boss Matteo Messina Denaro”. In particular, these are various amphorae from the late Roman era and a marble base reproducing mythological scenes carved on all sides, from the Hellenistic-Roman age, all considered to be of great value, belonging, according to Dia, to an international trafficker of works of art, already burdened by a confiscation order for numerous assets in his possession, as a subject suspected of belonging to Cosa Nostra and also in business with the Castelvetrano mafia family.
The international trafficker of works of art from whom the Dia has seized archaeological finds is Giovanni Franco Becchina, 85 years old, from Castelvetrano. Becchina has been in and out of legal affairs linked to Matteo Messina Denaro for years now. Investigated – investigation later closed – for a plan to steal the Dancing Satyr, now kept in Mazara del Vallo, which saw him as the instigator, he was then accused of having financed the fugitive of his fellow villager’s mafia boss: both were born in Castelvetrano. “Because Gianfranco Becchina had to give these things and therefore they had to end up in Panicola and then get to chiddu, to Matteo Messina Denaro”, the declarant Grigoli, another financier of the boss, told the investigators. In 2017, assets worth millions of euros were seized in Becchina. “Although to date he has not reported definitive convictions for the crime of mafia association, his associations, his ‘dealings’ and direct relationships with organized crime circles of the Castelvetranese mafia type make his degree of ‘qualified dangerousness’ current and relevant ‘”, we read in the 2017 seizure order.
Against the recipient of the provision “numerous clues emerge regarding his dangerousness, characterized by being a person who draws his livelihood from his criminal and profit-making activity as an international trafficker of archaeological finds”, says the Dia. Over the years, the trafficker of works of art had already been accused of having provided multiple contributions to the functioning and strengthening of the mafia association and, in this regard, statements had been made by various collaborators of justice.
“The ablative measure, issued following a proposal jointly signed by the Director of the DIA and the Public Prosecutor of Palermo, follows the path traced by previous similar measures resulting from the detailed property investigations carried out by the Operational Section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate of Trapani , which demonstrated the disproportion between the sources of income and the jobs of the family unit of the recipient of the measure”, say the investigators. The works of art will be entrusted for safekeeping to the Superintendence of Cultural and Environmental Heritage in order to make them accessible to the community again.
