Heh. Oops. Greek Vase, 2,500 Years Old, Is Shattered in Smuggling Probe

On June 19, 1990, Sotheby's Holdings Inc. held the century's first known auction of works by the Leonardo da Vinci of Greek pots, Euphronios. A 2,500-year-old kylix wine cup painted with a Trojan War scene, sold in New York for $742,000 to a then-anonymous ``European buyer.''

Then it vanished. The kylix is the only Euphronios vase listed as having an ``unknown'' location by Oxford University's Beazley Archive, the standard reference for Greek vessels.

``We just don't know where it is,'' said Thomas Mannack, 46, who runs the archive's pottery database.

It's a mystery no more. The missing kylix is in a cardboard box in a storeroom of Rome's Villa Giulia museum.

The bad news: It's smashed into dozens of pieces