The director of The Cleveland Museum of Art says museum officials are prepared to hand over 14 art works to Italian authorities.
Timothy Rub says the transfer of the art, which includes ancient pieces looted or smuggled out of Italy, will take place Wednesday, according to The Plain Dealer newspaper.
Rub and the Italian arts minister agreed to the handover in November. It was unclear which Italian agency would carry the objects back home.
As part of the agreement, Italy has promised to lend 13 objects comparable in quality to the returned antiquities and to cooperate on future exhibitions.
Rub says those works will go on view in Cleveland in 2010, when the museum reopens galleries devoted to ancient art after the completion of a $350 million expansion and renovation.
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