Italy's art cops have recovered a priceless Ancient Roman work stolen from an imperial villa in Sicily whose stunning mosaics have made it a World Heritage Site.
Police said they had found the work - a marble head of a noblewoman dating back to the Flavian Dynasty in the 1st century AD - at the home of a man previously suspected of buying stolen artefacts.
The man was released on bail.
The head - which disappeared from a warehouse in 2006 - came from a Roman house underneath the celebrated villa.
Police are still seeking another valuable work which went missing at the same time.
The Villa del Casale, which is currently being restored, is one of Italy's best-known archaeological sites.
An average of 1,000 people come daily to view the colourful mosaics, one of the most famous of which depicts what looks like bikini-clad females cavorting happily.
The mosaics, which date to the 4th century AD, cover four halls of the sumptuous villa.
Villa Casale became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, when the UN body noted that its mosaics "are the finest in situ in the Roman world".
Italy has recently stepped up its fight against art theft and has forged deals where foreign galleries return allegedly plundered art in return for temporary loans of similar exhibits.
The first-ever trial of a US antiquities curator is taking place in Rome. She is charged with buying falsely certified artefacts allegedly stolen from various Italian sites.
