July 15 (Bloomberg) -- A Rome appeals court upheld the conviction of art dealer Giacomo Medici, who had been accused of supplying museums and collectors around the world with antiquities looted from tombs and smuggled out of Italy.

Italy has used evidence from Medici’s December 2004 conviction to win the return of artifacts from institutions including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

“Mickey Mouse can’t compete with the state” of Italy, Medici, 71, said after the verdict. He said he’ll appeal the decision to Italy’s highest court.

In Medici’s 2004 conviction, Rome Judge Guglielmo Muntoni sentenced him to 10 years in prison and a 10 million-euro ($14 million) fine for smuggling, handling stolen antiquities and conspiracy. Today his sentence was reduced to eight years. Medici has been free while appealing.

In the years following the 2004 conviction, Italian government negotiators presented U.S. museums with evidence that included thousands of photos found in a 1995 raid on Medici’s Geneva warehouse. Several antiquities have since been repatriated.

The Medici case is part of a broader probe that includes Hecht and the Getty’s former antiquities curator, Marion True, who’ve been on trial in Rome since 2005 for conspiracy and handling looted antiquities. Hecht is also charged with smuggling. Hecht and True deny the charges.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome at scherer@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 15, 2009 11:02 EDT