[CPProt.net] Trial of Curator at the Getty Postponed by Italian Court

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Trial of Curator at the Getty Postponed by Italian Court
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROME, July 18 - The trial of Marion True, a curator at the J. Paul Getty
Museum in Los Angeles charged with conspiring to import illegally excavated
antiquities, was postponed here Monday after a brief hearing in criminal
court.

The trial, which is being closely watched in the art world because of its
potential repercussions for other museums with recently acquired
antiquities, is now set to open on Nov. 16. The court said it was deferring
it because the defendants had not received notice of the charges translated
into English.

Neither Ms. True nor her co- defendant, Emanuel Robert Hecht, 86, an
American art dealer based in Paris, attended the hearing in a drab,
low-ceilinged courtroom near the Vatican. Both have denied the charges
through their lawyers.

As the Getty's antiquities curator, Ms. True, 56, oversees a vast collection
of Greek, Roman and Etruscan objects that began with purchases by J. Paul
Getty in the 1950's. During her two decades at the Getty, it has expanded to
50,000 objects through ambitious purchases and gifts from donors.

Italy has adopted tough new policies to thwart the trade in looted and
illegally exported antiquities, which often eventually find their way to
museums and private collectors in other countries. 

"This case is a signal to those who have despoiled Italy's underground
patrimony," said Maurizio Fiorilli, a lawyer for Italy's Culture Ministry.
"It's telling them we've noticed."

The case involving Ms. True is linked to a 1995 raid on four warehouses in
Geneva that brought to light thousands of artifacts. Italian investigators
contend that some of them had been illegally excavated from sites in Italy
and other Mediterranean countries. Investigators also found thousands of
photographs of antiquities in the warehouses, some of which they say depict
artifacts now in museums, including the Getty. 

The warehouses were later traced to Giacomo Medici, a Rome resident
described by Italy's police squad for art thefts as an "orchestrator of much
of the world's illegal traffic in archaeological artifacts." 

Mr. Medici was originally indicted with Ms. True and Mr. Hecht but opted for
"fast-track prosecution," a procedure that reduces any sentence that results
from a conviction. In December Mr. Medici was handed a 10-year prison term
and fined more than 10 million euros. The conviction is being appealed, and
he has not been jailed.

Mr. Medici, who attended Monday's hearing, scornfully dismissed the
prosecution's case against him, which he said was based mostly on the
Polaroid photos found in the Geneva warehouse. He asserted that some of the
photos were planted there by investigators and in any case did not
constitute enough evidence to prosecute. 

"By condemning me based on the photos, they want to strike American
museums," he said. "They want to empty out American museums."

Alessandro Vannucci, the lawyer representing Mr. Hecht, said that Mr.
Medici's conviction "unfortunately could have an influence" on the case
against Ms. True and Mr. Hecht, noting that Guglielmo Muntoni, the judge who
ordered the two defendants to stand trial, is the same judge who found Mr.
Medici guilty. 

But a lawyer for Ms. True, Franco Coppi, one of Italy's most prominent
defense attorneys, argued that Mr. Medici's conviction would have no bearing
on this current case. 

"Each trial is its own story," he said. "Someone can be guilty, someone else
innocent." 

The investigation of Ms. True came as a surprise to many in the art world.
In 1995 she oversaw the Getty's tightening of its ethics policy for
antiquities acquisitions, and in recent years she has initiated the
restitution of a number of objects to Italy. 

Mr. Fiorilli, the lawyer for the Culture Ministry, said that this year the
Getty offered to return three pieces to Italy - a Greek epigraph from
Selinunte, a bronze Etruscan candelabrum and a red figure vase from Paestum
- as a gesture of good faith. "We accepted the restitution but proceeded
with the trial," he said, adding that the ministry was open to discussing
the return of additional works.

Efforts to reach Getty officials for comment were unsuccessful yesterday.
When the July trial date was announced in May, the museum issued a statement
of support for Ms. True, saying, "We trust that this trial will result in
her exoneration." It also emphasized that it had cooperated with Italian
investigators, providing thousands of pages of documents.