Smithsonian Magazine Mosaic of Caligula

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC

Art dealer Helen Fioratti and her husband, Nereo, purchased the mosaic from an aristocratic Italian family in the 1960s and used it as a coffee table in their Manhattan apartment for some 45 years

Authorities returned the ancient artwork, now on view at a museum near Rome, to Italy following a multi-year investigation… Read more