[CPProt.net] Cup battle draws Italy against the US

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Cup battle draws Italy against the US 
By David Usborne in New York 
Published: 31 October 2005 

It stands on a plinth in a ground-floor gallery of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, an exquisitely decorated Greek vase known as the
Euphronios krater. The 2,500-year-old terracotta miracle is one of the
institution's finest and most treasured antiquities. It is also fast
becoming its greatest legal and diplomatic headache. 

The directors of the Met suddenly find themselves under intense fire from
prosecutors in Italy, who say they have new and irrefutable evidence that
the vase was looted from a tomb north of Rome and sold to the museum under
false pretences. They want it back. And, while they are at it, they will
take a few other things they also consider to have been stolen.

This is only the latest salvo from the Italian authorities is a tug-of-war
over ancient treasures held by art institutions and private collectors in
America. Their most important target, until now, has been the J Paul Getty
Museum in California. It has been asked by the Italians to hand back no
fewer than 42 objects in its collection.

Far from genteel, the affair has already led to charges being filed in Italy
against a former antiquities curator of the Getty Museum, Marion True, as
well as a well-known American dealer, Robert Hecht, who is also at the
centre of the newly emerging Euphronios krater intrigue. Both are facing
trial in Rome for allegedly trafficking in looted art.

Greece has also got in on the act by presenting archaeological evidence
proving the Greek origin of three of the masterpieces of the Getty's
antiquities collection. A gold funerary wreath, an inscribed tombstone and a
marble torso were all purchased in 1993. The fourth item, an archaic votive
relief, was bought in 1955 by the museum's founder, J Paul Getty himself.

Now, it seems, it may be the turn of the Met to come under the same tough
and awkward scrutiny. In addition to the vase, the Italians are reportedly
pursuing six other items in its antiquities collection as well as eight
items in the private collection of Shelby White, a New York philanthropist
who is also a member of the Met's board of directors.

How long the krater will remain in New York is now in serious question. The
museum has said in the past that it will not take the Italians seriously
until they come up with "irrefutable proof" to show that, as they claim, it
was stolen from a necropolis outside Rome after 1939, when exporting
antiquities without proper permits became illegal.

Prosecutors in Italy may now have that proof, according to reports in the
Los Angeles Times. Most notably, they are throwing doubt once more on Mr
Hecht, who sold the vase to the museum 33 years ago. He said at the time
that he had acquired it from a Lebanese businessman who in turn had received
it from his father.

Not so, say the Italian investigators, who offer a quite different version.
Citing passages written by Mr Hecht himself in a memoir, they say he
purchased the vase from an Italian dealer named Giacomo Medici, who was
convicted last year of trafficking in stolen art and sentenced to 10 years
in prison. The case is on appeal.

Moreover, the Italians apparently have photographs of Messrs Hecht and
Medici posing next to the vase in the Met. (Mr Medici, they claim, travelled
the world to be snapped beside items he had found and sold.) A deposition
from Ms True may help to support the Italian version of events.

Their story makes no mention of Lebanese businessmen. Instead, they assert
that the vase, portraying the death of Sarpedon, the son of Zeus, in a scene
from The Iliad by Homer, was lifted by robbers from Cerveteri, the site of
an ancient Greek necropolis, in 1971. It was sold to Mr Medici, they say,
who in turn sold it to Mr Hecht.

Mr Hecht acknowledged last week that he wrote more or less the same version
in his memoir, but claimed it was fiction designed to help the work sell
better.

Even Thomas Hoving, the former Met director who acquired the krater from Mr
Hecht, is apparently having doubts. He told the LA Times that he considered
Mr Hecht's memoir constituted an "important piece of evidence". He went on:
"It proves, as the final nail in the coffin, where it came from".

Custody battles

* Elgin Marbles: Chiselled from Athens' Parthenon in 1811 by Thomas Bruce,
the Seventh Earl of Elgin. The Greek government has been demanding their
return from the British Museum for decades.

* The Axum Obelisk: 1,700-year- old column looted by Italy in 1937 and
returned to Addis Ababa in May.

* The Beneventan Missal: A 12th-century manuscript looted by the Nazis and
bought by British Army Captain in a bookshop. British Museum agreed to
return in March.

* Nefertiti Bust: Brought to Germany by an archaeologist in 1912. The
Egyptians demand its return.

* Benin Bronzes: 700 plaques from Nigeria, now in the British Museum. Some
were sold back. 

It stands on a plinth in a ground-floor gallery of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, an exquisitely decorated Greek vase known as the
Euphronios krater. The 2,500-year-old terracotta miracle is one of the
institution's finest and most treasured antiquities. It is also fast
becoming its greatest legal and diplomatic headache. 

The directors of the Met suddenly find themselves under intense fire from
prosecutors in Italy, who say they have new and irrefutable evidence that
the vase was looted from a tomb north of Rome and sold to the museum under
false pretences. They want it back. And, while they are at it, they will
take a few other things they also consider to have been stolen.

This is only the latest salvo from the Italian authorities is a tug-of-war
over ancient treasures held by art institutions and private collectors in
America. Their most important target, until now, has been the J Paul Getty
Museum in California. It has been asked by the Italians to hand back no
fewer than 42 objects in its collection.

Far from genteel, the affair has already led to charges being filed in Italy
against a former antiquities curator of the Getty Museum, Marion True, as
well as a well-known American dealer, Robert Hecht, who is also at the
centre of the newly emerging Euphronios krater intrigue. Both are facing
trial in Rome for allegedly trafficking in looted art.

Greece has also got in on the act by presenting archaeological evidence
proving the Greek origin of three of the masterpieces of the Getty's
antiquities collection. A gold funerary wreath, an inscribed tombstone and a
marble torso were all purchased in 1993. The fourth item, an archaic votive
relief, was bought in 1955 by the museum's founder, J Paul Getty himself.

Now, it seems, it may be the turn of the Met to come under the same tough
and awkward scrutiny. In addition to the vase, the Italians are reportedly
pursuing six other items in its antiquities collection as well as eight
items in the private collection of Shelby White, a New York philanthropist
who is also a member of the Met's board of directors.

How long the krater will remain in New York is now in serious question. The
museum has said in the past that it will not take the Italians seriously
until they come up with "irrefutable proof" to show that, as they claim, it
was stolen from a necropolis outside Rome after 1939, when exporting
antiquities without proper permits became illegal.

Prosecutors in Italy may now have that proof, according to reports in the
Los Angeles Times. Most notably, they are throwing doubt once more on Mr
Hecht, who sold the vase to the museum 33 years ago. He said at the time
that he had acquired it from a Lebanese businessman who in turn had received
it from his father.
Not so, say the Italian investigators, who offer a quite different version.
Citing passages written by Mr Hecht himself in a memoir, they say he
purchased the vase from an Italian dealer named Giacomo Medici, who was
convicted last year of trafficking in stolen art and sentenced to 10 years
in prison. The case is on appeal.

Moreover, the Italians apparently have photographs of Messrs Hecht and
Medici posing next to the vase in the Met. (Mr Medici, they claim, travelled
the world to be snapped beside items he had found and sold.) A deposition
from Ms True may help to support the Italian version of events.

Their story makes no mention of Lebanese businessmen. Instead, they assert
that the vase, portraying the death of Sarpedon, the son of Zeus, in a scene
from The Iliad by Homer, was lifted by robbers from Cerveteri, the site of
an ancient Greek necropolis, in 1971. It was sold to Mr Medici, they say,
who in turn sold it to Mr Hecht.

Mr Hecht acknowledged last week that he wrote more or less the same version
in his memoir, but claimed it was fiction designed to help the work sell
better.

Even Thomas Hoving, the former Met director who acquired the krater from Mr
Hecht, is apparently having doubts. He told the LA Times that he considered
Mr Hecht's memoir constituted an "important piece of evidence". He went on:
"It proves, as the final nail in the coffin, where it came from".

Custody battles

* Elgin Marbles: Chiselled from Athens' Parthenon in 1811 by Thomas Bruce,
the Seventh Earl of Elgin. The Greek government has been demanding their
return from the British Museum for decades.

* The Axum Obelisk: 1,700-year- old column looted by Italy in 1937 and
returned to Addis Ababa in May.

* The Beneventan Missal: A 12th-century manuscript looted by the Nazis and
bought by British Army Captain in a bookshop. British Museum agreed to
return in March.

* Nefertiti Bust: Brought to Germany by an archaeologist in 1912. The
Egyptians demand its return.

* Benin Bronzes: 700 plaques from Nigeria, now in the British Museum. Some
were sold back. 

http://news.independent.co.uk/