[MSN] Greeks Hail Getty Museum ¹ s Pledge to Return Treasures

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December 12, 2006



Greeks Hail Getty Museum¹s Pledge to Return Treasures
By ANTHEE CARASSAVA

ATHENS, Dec. 11 ‹ Resolving a decade-long dispute, the Greek government and
the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles announced Monday that the Getty had
agreed to hand over an ancient gold funerary wreath and a marble statue that
were illegally excavated and removed from Greece.

The decision was hailed here as a major triumph against antiquities
smuggling, the capstone of a recent campaign by Greece ‹ with significant
help from Italy ‹ to put public pressure on some of the world¹s top museums
and private collectors.

³This is a glorious moment,² Culture Minister Georgios A. Voulgarakis said
at a news conference in Athens. ³It shows that serious work can produce
serious results.²

In a telephone interview from London, where he arrived on Monday, Michael
Brand, the Getty Museum¹s director, said, ³Both sides wanted to get it
right.²

³There was a disturbing element regarding its provenance,² he said. ³But we
needed to feel absolutely sure about returning it to the right place.²

The pivotal factor leading to the pact, Mr. Voulgarakis said, was a dossier
of evidence presented to the Getty¹s lawyers in October indicating that the
statue and wreath were illegally spirited out of Greece before the museum
bought them in 1993 for about $4.4 million.

In recent days Greek cultural officials have cited testimony by tomb
raiders, money transfers and a photographic paper trail that they said
detailed how the fourth-century B.C. wreath and sixth-century B.C. kore, or
statue of a woman, were dug up and transported to middlemen before they were
sold to the Getty.

The wreath and statue were among five ancient works that Getty trustees
agreed to purchase on the recommendation of Marion True, who was then the
museum¹s antiquities curator. (Ms. True is now on trial in a separate case
in Italy on charges of conspiring to acquire illegally excavated artifacts.
She maintains she is innocent.)

At the news conference Mr. Voulgarakis praised Nikolas Zirganos, an
investigative journalist, for his help in the inquiry. After the news
conference Mr. Zirganos said much of the new evidence poured in over the
summer from Italy, which has waged its own battle to win back artifacts from
the Getty.

But he said he himself led Greek investigators over the summer to a German
citizen of Greek origin who acted as a middleman in the sale of the wreath,
unearthed in the early 1990¹s and believed to have been executed by the
craftsman who forged the royal wreath of Philip of Macedon, father of
Alexander the Great.

³The middleman testified before Greek authorities, producing picture-perfect
images of the wreath at the site of the tomb that it was dug up from² in
northern Greece, he said.

Investigators also interviewed the two tomb robbers, he said.

The middleman, whom Mr. Zirganos did not identify, tried first to sell the
wreath to Gianfranco Becchina, a well-known Sicilian antiquities dealer. Mr.
Becchina declined to buy the object, but Italian investigators found
Polaroid photos of it in raids of his studio and home that they relayed to
the Greek investigators, Mr. Zirganos said.

Mr. Zirganos said the middleman had testified that he also approached Ms.
True about buying the wreath for the Getty. She referred the middleman to
Christoph Leon, a Munich antiquities collector from whom the Getty
eventually purchased it, Mr. Zirganos said, citing the man¹s testimony.

³With such evidence in hand,² he added, Greece¹s case ³became too powerful
to challenge.² 

Reached by telephone on Monday, Ms. True¹s lawyer in Los Angeles, Harry
Stang, said, ³There¹s no truth to the notion that she referred anyone to
this dealer.²

He added that in recommending the purchase of the wreath to the Getty¹s
board, ³she complied entirely with the existing protocols² at the museum,
³which provided that if an item was determined to have been looted, it would
be returned to the source country.²

He said that Getty officials had confirmed to him ³that decisions to return
objects do not reflect a judgment of culpability on Dr. True¹s part.²

To step up the pressure on the Getty, the Greek legal authorities opened an
investigation of Ms. True and four other people involving the wreath
acquisition in November. All face summonses to testify before an Athens
prosecutor. 

Last spring police raided a villa owned by Ms. True on Paros, a Greek
island, and removed more than a dozen antiquities that officials said had
not been registered with the authorities as required by Greek law.

Through her lawyers Ms. True has said the artifacts were in the villa when
she purchased it and that she had informed local officials of their
presence. It is unclear how the return of the wreath and kore will affect
the Greek investigation of Ms. True: whether the Getty¹s decision will
appease the Greek government, for example, or simply strengthen the
prosecutors¹ resolve.

Mr. Brand said ³there was no set agreement² related to Ms. True and declined
to comment further.

Mr. Voulgarakis said the two matters were unrelated. ³What the judiciary
does is independent of our work to reclaim stolen treasures,² he said.

Neither Mr. Leon nor the seller of the kore, the London-based dealer Robin
Symes, have been charged with any crime in Greece.

But Greek and Italian investigators have been closely examining Ms. True¹s
relationship to Mr. Symes, who sold millions of dollars of antiquities to
the Getty during her tenure as antiquities curator. (She resigned last year
amid accusations that she failed to disclose details about a loan she
received for the purchase of her Greek villa.)

Italian investigators have shared a photograph of a youthful Ms. True with
Christos Michaelides, Mr. Symes¹s companion, on the island of Paros, where
both Mr. Symes and Ms. True own vacation homes.

Paolo Ferri, the prosecutor leading Italy¹s investigation into the
antiquities trade, said last month that because of ³new documentation,² Mr.
Symes¹s position would ³soon be clarified.²

At the news conference Mr. Voulgarakis insisted that Greece had promised the
Getty ³nothing in return² for the wreath or kore.

But a statement issued by the two sides said they would soon sign a formal
accord on the two artifacts that would provide for cultural collaboration
between the Getty and Greece.

Mr. Brand said the resolution of the dispute could open the way for
long-term loans from Greece and joint exhibition projects.

In pursuing the antiquities issue on both the legal and diplomatic fronts,
both Italy and Greece seem to have found a successful formula.

In July the Getty returned two other objects that Greece had sought: a large
stele, or grave marker, acquired in 1993, and a small marble relief from the
island of Thassos bought by the museum¹s founder, the oil magnate J. Paul
Getty, in 1955. 

The museum¹s negotiations with Italy have stalled, but the Getty has pledged
unilaterally to return 26 artifacts sought by its government.

³The whole field of antiquities has museums around the world debating about
provenance,² Mr. Brand said. ³There are many objects that have perfectly
good provenance.² Asked to elaborate, he declined.


Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company




   
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