WASHINGTON –– After a public hearing that raised long-standing disagreements between art dealers and archaeologists, a government commission is considering a request by Italy to block import of a millennium's worth of ancient artifacts.

The State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee is to make a recommendation on the request, but the decision ultimately will be President Clinton's. It is the most sweeping demand ever for restricting the sale of art objects from another country under international agreements and a 1983 U.S. cultural properties law.

The Italian request covers a long list of pottery, stoneware, architectural elements, glassware, coins, sculpture, jewelry and other items for a 1,000-year period beginning with the fifth century B.C.

Art dealers and museum curators insist such a restriction would limit U.S. public access to Italy's great cultural past. Archaeologists and the Italian government say it would help curb looting and theft of a treasured Italian heritage.

"The commission agrees in the concern about the need to better understand the scope of the request being submitted," said the commission's chairman, Martin E. Sullivan, at a hearing Tuesday. A decision is not expected for weeks, possibly months.

An Italian Embassy representative observed the hearing but did not testify. Embassy officer Luigi Maccotta said he could not speak officially for the government but said he is bothered as an Italian by suggestions of some art dealers that Italy is trying to take away their freedom.

"We are just trying to establish some order," Maccotta said. "We are not trying to limit the freedom of the public. We don't like the chain of illegal selling of objects."

Dealers questioned the extent of stolen Italian artifacts on the market.

"Are we now going to allow a repressive society to reach beyond its borders?" asked Arielle Kosloff, a New York gallery operator. "Italy says its sites are being pillaged. I do not believe this is true at this time."

But the head of the Archaeological Institute of America, Ricardo Elia, cited what he called ample evidence of continuing pilferage and theft, including recent successes by Italian art police in the confiscation of more than 30,000 looted artifacts in three separate raids.

Elia clashed with a representative of Sotheby's, the New York auction house, on the source of Italian vases sold at the auction in New York and on the extent of the looting problem in Italy.

Citing the appearance of 4,200 southern Italian vases on world markets in recent years, Elia said, "It's too much." He insisted such a hoard could not be legitimate, and most of the vases come from looted archaeological sites.

"But it isn't," shouted Rena Moulopoulos, Sotheby's director of compliance. She said when the value of specific art objects increases, they begin to surface from a variety of sources, including legitimate private collections around the world.

The commission, appointed by the president, normally includes two members representing museums, three experts in archaeology or related fields, three representing art dealers and three members of the general public. Two of the dealer seats are vacant.

© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press