[CPProt.net] Italy claims Minneapolis museum holds looted vase

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Italy claims Minneapolis museum holds looted vase
Mary Abbe, Star Tribune
November 9, 2005


The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is among eight U.S. museums accused by
Italian authorities of possessing antiquities allegedly looted from ancient
ruins. The Italian government wants the objects back, claiming they have
been illegally excavated and exported.

A Greek vase owned by the Minneapolis museum appears to match a photo of a
vase that Italians say was looted. The photo comes from a trove of Polaroids
the Italian government confiscated in 1995 from antiquities dealer Giacomo
Medici, who was convicted last year in Rome of trafficking in looted art.

The Minneapolis museum appears to be on the periphery of a complex case
centering on Medici and two co-defendants, American art dealer Robert Hecht
Jr. and Marion True, a former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty
Museum in Los Angeles. True is on trial in Italy this month, charged with
conspiracy to traffic in illicit antiquities.

William Griswold, director of the Minneapolis museum, could not be reached
Tuesday. Earlier he told the Los Angeles Times that he plans to investigate
the vase.

"We want to respond in a responsible way," said Griswold, who was assistant
director of the Getty before taking the post here in October.

Of the more than 80 objects Italian officials seek from U.S. museums, the
Getty has 42, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has more than 30 and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has seven. The other accused museums
-- in Princeton, N.J.; Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, and Richmond, Va. -- each
have one or two pieces.


The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report. Mary Abbe . 612-673-4431