[CPProt.net] Interesting reading from our archives (in view of the present Getty controversy): Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

October 3, 2005

Interesting reading from our archives (in view of the present Getty
controversy): Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars
>From our archives, Januari 19, 1998: Harvard museum acquisitions shock
scholars 


"The consequences of inaction, a team of academics who drafted the policy
wrote, were unacceptable. Mitten, who urged acquisition of the vase
fragments, also has purchased several undocumented classical antiquities
from Robert E. Hecht - some of them, including 70 ancient Greek coins, as
recently as last year. In the 1970s, the Italian government declared Hecht
persona non grata and ordered him out of the country for nine years for his
alleged involvement in the illicit trade in antiquities. For similar
reasons, he was banned from Turkey during the 1980s. Mitten, a professor at
Harvard for 37 years, has cordial relations with Hecht. ''I don't think
there is any reason to question'' Hecht's credentials,'' Mitten said. ''We
have bought from Bob Hecht and will continue to do so. He's very square with
us. We have every reason to believe him.'' Thomas P. Hoving, former director
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has quite a different view of Hecht,
having weathered a 1972 scandal involving the purchase of a 2,500-year-old
Greek vase from Hecht for more than $1 million, only to have evidence
surface that it had been looted in Italy. The true origin of the vase was
never proven, and Italy ultimately dropped criminal charges against Hecht in
the case. ''Nobody would accept anything from Robert Hecht unless they were
really looney,'' Hoving said. ''In his entire career maybe there are two or
three pieces he had that, by chance, were legitimate, that fell onto the
truck. But the rest, no way.''"

Read the full report: 

Harvard museum acquisitions shock scholars
http://www.museum-security.org/reports/00798.html