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Heady day for 'mythological' Kelly


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The Greek god of wine is back where it belongs - in Italy.

An NYPD probe found that a marble head of Dionysus, or Bacchus in Roman mythology, had been stolen from a museum there more than two decades ago.

That gave Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday a chance to quip to Consul General Antonio Bandini, "On behalf of the New York Police Department, I bring you the head of Dionysus," at a ceremony at the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue.

Authorities said Christie's had planned to put the antiquity up for sale for $25,000 in 2002 after acquiring it from a now-defunct Japanese museum.

But the auction house, suspecting something was amiss, turned it over to the cops, who traced it to an Italian museum looted in 1983.

Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

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