ABOVE: detail from the Euphronios krater, a 12-gallon greek pot depicting a scene from the Trojan War. New evidence from an investigation into art smuggling suggests the chunk of clay might be boosted goods.

Like mormon missionaries and wood termites, stolen artworks never arrive one by one, but in a swarm. So it seems inevitable now that the growing crisis at the Getty Museum in L.A. over the purchase of allegedly looted antiquities would naturally spread, herpes-like, to museums all over the place. Art dealers, after all, are known for, uh, getting around, you know? If they’ll sell a hot vase to one museum, they’ll just as happily sell it to another. The Italian investigation into looted antiquities at the Getty has turned up evidence (though, of course, not yet proof) that the same group of dealers in that case have also sold works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, the Princeton University Art Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

It all comes down to a trove of polaroids that Italian police seized in a raid on a Swiss warehouse, which depict the dealers at issue here, Giacomo Medici and Robert Hecht, posing with items that the Italian cops say are looted. The Bloomberg News story says that there are thousands of such polaroids, and the prosecutor from Rome, Paolo Ferri, says that it’s just the tip of the iceberg, and that the traffic in looted Italian antiquities through Switzerland ends up going to “most art museums in America.” Say a prayer and check your receipts, everyone.

LINK: Bloomberg News > Tomb-Robbing Trials Name Getty, Metropolitan, Princeton Museums