[CPProt.net] Getty museum sends three artifacts back to Italy

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Getty museum sends three artifacts back to Italy
Last Updated Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:00:50 EST 
CBC Arts
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles returned three ancient artifacts to
Italy this week, in their ongoing legal battle over looted art. 

The return could act as a test case for future claims against the Getty and
other U.S. museums involving art acquired through Paris-based American art
dealer Robert Hecht. 

Among the pieces returned is a 2,300-year-old Greek vase, known as a krater,
painted by Asteas. A bronze Etruscan candelabrum and stone inscription were
also returned. 

The Italian government had filed a claim with Los Angeles legal authorities.
The museum is hoping to build goodwill with the Italians ahead of further
lawsuits involving 42 pieces of art in the collection of the Getty museum. 

"The Getty Museum, conscious of the illegal origins of the works, decided
spontaneously to restore them to Italy," Italy's minister of culture said
Wednesday, after the pieces arrived back in the country. Italy refused to
drop further legal claims in exchange for the return of the krater. 

The Getty admitted no wrongdoing, but issued a statement saying it returned
the krater in "the interest of settling the litigation." It added that it
returned the other two objects "on its own evaluation of evidence presented
by the Italian government." 

The trial of Marion True, the Getty's former chief curator of antiquities,
on charges of conspiring with Hecht to traffic in looted art resumes Nov. 16
in Rome. 

Italy has legal action pending in the U.S. in an attempt to reclaim objects
from six other museums and from some private collections. In its statement
of claim, Italian authorities used photographs of objects that were seized
at the warehouse of Giacomo Medici, who has been convicted of trafficking in
looted antiquities. 

In one case yet to be played out, Hecht sold a Greek vase to the Met in
1972, saying he had bought it from a Lebanese man whose family had acquired
the vase legally. But in a memoir seized during the investigation by Italian
authorities, Hecht said he purchased the vase from Medici. 

Italy says the returned objects will be displayed in a museum. 

The Getty also faces charges that it bought looted antiquities belonging to
Greece.