By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Two statues stolen from Italian museums in the 1980s were recently returned to Rome after they turned up on Madison Avenue, the Associated Press reported.
Michele Speranza, a member of the Italian Carabinieri art squad responsible for finding stolen artifacts, was strolling down Madison Avenue while on vacation in New York last year when he recognized a first-century marble statue of a female torso in a gallery window, the AP said.
"I stopped to look at the gallery window and I recognized the statue," the Associated Press quoted Speranza, 38, as telling reporters at a press conference in Rome on Friday.
"I thought I had seen it among the photos in our databank" of missing art, said the officer, who took a cell phone photo of the piece while in Manhattan and conducted follow-up research upon returning to work in Rome, the AP reported.
A marble torso had been missing from a small archaeological museum in Terracina since 1988, along with a small bronze statue of the Greek god Zeus, which was stolen from the National Museum in Rome in 1980, according to AP.
No arrests have been made in connection with either of the thefts, according to the wire service.