Massimo Osanna, the archaeological superintendent of Pompeii, has revealed that over a hundred people have returned relics that they stole when they visited the ancient Roman town.
In letters accompanying the artefacts, many put their repentant actions down to a guilty conscience, but some have a more sinister explanation - that the ancient items are cursed. One man from Latin America claimed that he and his family had suffered ‘trauma after trauma’ thanks to a cursed piece of stone he took from Pompeii. Another letter from Spain, accompanying a number of stolen items including a bronze statue, complained that the statue had brought a ‘curse on his entire family’. Read more: telegraph.co.uk