Italian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa dies in Ethiopian Airlines crash

Sebastiano Tusa, the Sicilian regional assessor for cultural heritage and a renowned marine archaeologist, was among the 157 passengers killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019. Tusa was traveling to Nairobi for a UNESCO project, having previously visited in December 2018 with his wife Valeria Patrizia Li Vigni, director of the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Palazzo Riso in Palermo. Appointed assessor in April 2018 by Governor Nello Musumeci, succeeding Vittorio Sgarbi, Tusa was the son of archaeologist Vincenzo Tusa. Born in Palermo in 1952, he founded the Soprintendenza del Mare della Regione Siciliana in 1993, leading underwater archaeological missions in Italy, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, and Japan. He authored over 700 scholarly works, taught marine archaeology at the University of Palermo and palethnology at Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples, and co-directed a documentary with Folco Quilici on Mediterranean prehistory at Pantelleria. Vittorio Sgarbi mourned his intelligence and dedication to beauty, while Paolo Giulierini, director of the Parco Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei, recalled a protocol signed with Tusa for underwater archaeology protection.