[MSN] Getty Accord With Italy Over Contested Antiquities Could Take Months.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

June 21, 2006
Getty Accord With Italy Over Contested Antiquities Could Take Months 
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROME, June 20 - A representative of the Italian Culture Ministry said
Tuesday that it would take several months of negotiations for an accord to
be reached with the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles over the return of
ancient objects that Italy asserts were unlawfully removed from its
archaeologically rich soil.

"Our deadline is September," said Maurizio Fiorilli, a state lawyer and the
chief negotiator in the talks. "A final agreement is being developed." 

He said more time was needed because of the volume of documentation that
Italy has presented to the Getty Museum to make its case. He added that
Italy was also seeking to reach "a significant cultural accord" with the
museum.

Representatives of the ministry met all day on Monday and for six hours on
Tuesday with a Getty delegation that included a lawyer engaged by the trust
to sort through the Getty's recent scandals. 

A smaller, technical team of experts will continue the talks at the ministry
on Wednesday, Mr. Fiorilli said. In a sense, he said, "we haven't even begun
to negotiate," because the two sides are still seeking to define legal
rights to the works.

He said any accord would have to be approved by the trust.

Until now, Italy had been demanding the return of 52 Roman and Etruscan
antiquities in the Getty's collection that investigators believe were looted
by tomb robbers and illegally exported. Many of these pieces are at the
heart of the case against Marion True, former curator of antiquities at the
Getty, who is on trial in Rome on charges of conspiring to deal in looted
artifacts.

But on Tuesday Mr. Fiorilli said several more Getty pieces from related
investigations had been added to the list. The Los Angeles Times reported on
Sunday that 350 pieces in the collection had been found to have dubious
provenance. Mr. Fiorilli said he could not comment on those pieces until
evidence had been provided.

On Tuesday The Los Angeles Times reported that the Getty Trust was willing
to return 21 pieces to Italy. Mr. Fiorilli declined to comment on the
article.

Among those artifacts, the report said, are a pair of griffins and a statue
of Apollo. The griffins are on display in the Getty Museum's renovated villa
in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

http://www.nytimes.com/