[CPProt.net] Prosecutors in Getty curator trial: Photos show stolen art

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Prosecutors in Getty curator trial: Photos show stolen art

By Ariel David
ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:04 p.m. December 5, 2005

ROME - Prosecutors in the trial of a former curator of California's J. Paul
Getty Museum on Monday displayed photos seized from the warehouse of a
convicted art trafficker they claimed were proof the Getty and other U.S.
museums acquired stolen art from Italy.
Maurizio Pellegrini, an archaeological expert and a consultant testifying
for the prosecution, compared about a dozen of the pictures with photos of
what he claimed were the same pieces after they had been prepared for
display in the Getty.

He said the photos showed that artifacts bought by the Los Angeles museum
had been smuggled out of Italy by Giacomo Medici, convicted in December and
sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy in international trafficking
in antiquities.

Former Getty antiquities curator Marion True and art dealer Robert Hecht are
accused of receiving and conspiring to deal in illegally acquired
antiquities. The defendants, both Americans, deny wrongdoing.

Franco Coppi, one of True's defense lawyers, said he did not contest that
some of the artifacts at the Getty may have been smuggled, but he said True
didn't know about their alleged illegal origin.

"We don't have to explain how these objects arrived at the Getty, our
problem is to prove that Mrs. True was convinced of their legitimate origin
when she acquired them for the Getty," he said.

The trial, seen as a warning from Italy to the art world, followed a 1995
raid of Medici's offices in Geneva where police found 10,000 photos, some of
which depicted artifacts they deemed of "uncertain origin."

The case against True involves about 35 artifacts acquired by the Getty
museum between 1986 and the late 1990s - including bronze Etruscan pieces,
frescoes and painted Greek vessels.

In one case, Pellegrini compared a photo of a restored 5th century B.C.
Etruscan statuette and another photo that allegedly shows the unrestored
piece just after it was dug up from the Cerveteri archaeological site near
Rome.

Using a laser pointer Pellegrini pointed to identifying marks in the two
photos, including a burn mark on the base of the statuette.

"It's the same one, 100 percent sure," Pellegrini said.

He also showed a photo seized from Medici depicting a fragmented and dirty
statue wrapped in Italian newspaper - which he said was additional proof the
object had been looted from Italy - alongside another of what he said was
the same piece after it was bought by the Getty.

Another photo confiscated from Hecht in Paris showed a vase Pellegrini said
was from Puglia that was bought by the Boston Fine Arts Museum in 1991.

Neither True - who made a surprise appearance at the trial last month - nor
Hecht was present in court Monday. In Italy defendants are not required to
attend their trials.

Italy - rich in ancient history - has strict laws stipulating that
antiquities belong to the state and cannot leave its territory, except on
loan for exhibition, and it is hoping the trial will help it recover many
artifacts that it contends were illegally excavated or exported. The Getty
recently returned three ancient pieces.

 
  
Find this article at: 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20051205-1404-italy-lootedantiquiti
es.html