Ancient fresco among 60 treasures returned to Italy from US

A Pompeiian-style fresco from Herculaneum titled Young Hercules and the snake on display among other archaeological artefacts stolen from Italy and sold in the US by international art traffickers, during a press conference in Rome (Andrew Medichini/AP)

A fresco depicting Hercules and originally from Herculaneum, a city destroyed along with Pompeii by the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, is back in Italy, along with 59 other ancient pieces illegally trafficked to the United States.

Last summer, US authorities announced that the fresco and dozens of other trafficked objects, which ended up in private collections in the United States, would go back to Italy.