[MSN] Greek authorities said Thursday that they would press charges against Marion True for illegal possession of 29 ancient artifacts police officers found this spring in her Greek villa.

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Greek authorities said Thursday that they would press charges against Marion
True for illegal possession of 29 ancient artifacts police officers found
this spring in her Greek villa. 



By ANTHEE CARASSAVA
Published: May 5, 2006
ATHENS, May 4 - The Greek authorities said Thursday that they would press
charges against Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the J. Paul
Getty Museum in Los Angeles, for illegal possession of 29 ancient artifacts
police officers found this spring in her Greek villa.


George Gligoris, head of a special police unit that investigates antiquities
smuggling, said that the scope of the charges would hinge on archaeologist
appraisals of the objects. If their value is determined to be less than
$96,000, he said, Ms. True could simply face a misdemeanor charge punishable
by fines. 

If they are worth considerably more, Mr. Gligoris said, Ms. True could face
a criminal trial that carried potential penalties including imprisonment.

"This shouldn't come as a surprise," he said. "None of these items were
registered with local archaeological authorities as the law requires."

Ms. True is already on trial in Rome on charges of conspiring to import
antiquities for the Getty that prosecutors say were looted from Italian
soil. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Greek officials have not suggested that any of the objects in Ms. True's
summer villa on Paros, in the Cyclades Islands, were intended for the Getty.
Ms. True has said through her lawyer that all the antiquities were in the
villa when she bought it in 1995.

But it is clear that the investigation of her villa is intended to ratchet
up pressure on the Getty as Greece lays claim to four antiquities in the
museum's possession.

Among them is a 2,500-year-old solid gold funerary crown considered to be a
highlight of the Getty's antiquities collection. The Greek culture minister,
George Voulgarakis, said this week that he would meet with the Getty's
director, Michael Brand, on May 16 in Athens to press his government's
claim.

In a search on Tuesday conducted with the consent of Ms. True's lawyer, a
Greek art investigative squad said it seized 12 ancient artifacts from the
villa, including a pair of marble sarcophagi dated from the time of
Alexander the Great. 

Another 17 items, including a set of ancient architectural blocks built into
the walls of the whitewashed 19th-century villa, were confiscated in two
earlier searches, on March 29 and April 11.

After those searches, Ms. True's lawyer in Los Angeles, Harry Stang, said
that all the confiscated items "were in the house" when Ms. True took
possession of it.

"She never acquired anything ancient thereafter," he said in a statement.
Mr. Stang added that Ms. True had invited the island's top archaeological
official to the house shortly after she moved in in 1995 to show him the
objects and to ask if they were of value. "She was advised that none of them
was of interest" to Greek museums or of any real value, Mr. Stang said. 

In an interview Thursday, he added that the ancient architectural elements
built into the villa "were there even before the previous owners bought the
house." 

He also said that Ms. True's lawyer on Paros had been told by two government
archaeologists after the initial police searches that the ancient pieces in
the villa were not archaeologically significant and were worth little money.


Mariza Marthari, the current chief archaeologist for Paros, and several
other Greek culture ministry officials contacted by telephone on Thursday
declined to comment on the case.

Greek officials began their investigation of Ms. True in November when the
government renewed its bid to seek the return of the four Getty artifacts. 

In recent months, police have also raided a home of Christos Mihailidis, a
close associate of the London-based dealer Robin Symes. Mr. Symes sold the
Getty antiquities when Ms. True served as the museum's curator.

Unlike Ms. True's cache, Greek officials said, the ancient artifacts found
in the Mihailidis villa, on the Cyclades island of Schinoussa, seemed
intended for illicit export and sale.

In pursuing Ms. True, the Greek government is clearly taking a leaf from the
Italians, whose legal case has given them leverage in bargaining for the
return of artifacts from American museums. 

Less than three months after her trial opened in Rome, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York agreed to return 21 artifacts that Italy contends
were looted from ancient sites in recent decades. Among them was the
renowned Euphronios krater, one of the finest existing examples of Greek
vessels from the sixth century B.C.

Mr. Brand, the Getty director, visited Rome in January to begin negotiations
over Italian demands for the return of at least 50 artifacts, a claim based
largely on evidence that is being presented at Ms. True's trial in Rome.

Randy Kennedy contributed reporting from New York for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/