[CPProt.net] Getty Museum says report on disputed artifacts used stolen information

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Getty Museum says report on disputed artifacts used stolen information


ASSOCIATED PRESS

6:48 p.m. September 26, 2005

LOS ANGELES - J. Paul Getty Museum officials charged Monday that a published
report alleging the institution knowingly acquired illegally excavated or
exported objects was based on information stolen from its files.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the museum continued to purchase
classical artwork for years even though it suspected some of the pieces were
looted from Italian ruins. The museum has denied the allegations.

"As much as it would like to be able to do so, the Getty cannot respond to
many of the Times' assertions because they rely on privileged and
confidential information stolen from the Getty's files," the museum said in
a statement.

The statement did not specify who allegedly stole the information, and the
museum did not return calls from The Associated Press seeking further
information.

The newspaper said it has done nothing wrong.

"The Los Angeles Times did not steal Getty records," said Janet Clayton,
assistant managing editor for state and local news. "We do not comment on
sources and this question being raised by the Getty doesn't address the
substance of what the records disclose."

The Times article cited an undated letter to Getty antiquities curator
Marion True from dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr., who said an ancient urn he had
offered to the museum was being sought by Italian police. The Getty bought
the urn in 1986 for $42,000.

The Italian government is demanding the return of 42 items it believes were
stolen, including a statute of Aphrodite that the Getty bought for $18
million in 1988.

Getty lawyers have determined that 82 items in the collection were purchased
through dealers and galleries under investigation by Italian officials,
including half of the works that the museum identifies as ancient
masterpieces, according to the Times.

Although dealers under investigation "have been discredited," the Getty
statement said, that "does not mean that any object acquired from one of
them was illegally excavated or exported."

Italian officials said they have photographs seized from a dealer's
warehouse in 1995 that show Getty artifacts encrusted with dirt, apparently
taken soon after they were dug up.

In a 1985 memo, Getty officials learned from dealer Giacomo Medici that
three objects the museum was buying from a private collector were excavated
from a tomb and a ruined villa near Naples decades after Italian law made
that illegal. The museum completed the purchase for $10.2 million.

A year later, an acting curator accused the museum in a resignation letter
of ignoring problems in the antiquities department and predicted the Getty's
"curatorial avarice" would lead to an investigation and the return of looted
artifacts.

Italian authorities have charged Medici, True and Hecht with conspiring to
traffic in looted antiquities.

Medici, who was convicted last year and sentenced to 10 years in prison,
remains free during his appeal. The trial for True and Hecht will resume in
November in Rome.

In its statement, the Getty said that responding to the Times' allegations
"would jeopardize Dr. True's right to a fair trial."

True told the Times she is innocent. Messages left by The Associated Press
for True at her home in Santa Monica and at her office were not immediately
returned.

 

  
 
  
 

  
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