Martin Conde has put up some interesting clippings from the New York Times from the early 1900s, including one which shows that the controversy surrounding the Monteleone Chariot is a longstanding one -- the sale appears to have been approved due to the "negligence" of a public official. There's something else odd about the report ... it claims the chariot was discovered in Umbria and had been buried by the ashes of Vesuvius. Now as far as I know, there was no eruption of Vesuvius between archaic times and 79 A.D., so that doesn't quite make sense. Umbria and Vesuvius are also rather distant from each other and I'm not sure how one could get significant ashfall from an eruption at such a distance. Something doesn't add up here ... whether bad reportage or deliberate deception ...