[MSN] Italy loans piece to MFA in exchange for return of disputed art

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Italy loans piece to MFA in exchange for return of disputed art
By Associated Press
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 - Updated: 03:23 PM EST

BOSTON - Italy made good on its agreement to loan one of its treasures to
the Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday, turning over a 9-foot marble statue
Eirene - goddess of peace - in exchange for the Boston institution returning
13 disputed antiquities to Rome this fall.

     The statue dates to the first half of the first century and, like many
Roman sculptures, is an adaptation of a Greek sculpture. The original bronze
sculpture of the personification of Peace, holding the baby Ploutos, was
made by Kephisodotos and dates to the 370s or 360s B.C.

     The statue - which no longer has its arms or the infant -was excavated
in 1986 from the garden of a Roman villa in the territory of Palombara
Sabina. It will be on view to the public until 2009.
  
     In Italy, the head of Eirene and the torso had been displayed
separated, but conservators at the Boston museum have joined the two pieces
together for display for the first time.

     Officials from the museum and Italian culture representatives planned
to discuss the loan at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

     Italy has been on a campaign to recover antiquities allegedly sold
illegally to museums worldwide. Officials have reached a similar deal with
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art but are in dispute with the J. Paul
Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

     Italy has demanded the Getty return more than 40 works. The museum last
week agreed to return 26 allegedly looted antiquities, a move Rome called
unilateral and inadequate.

     Italy's campaign includes the prosecution of former Getty curator
Marion True and art dealer Robert Hecht, who are on trial in Rome charged
with knowingly receiving archaeological treasures stolen from private
collections or dug up illicitly. They deny wrongdoing.

     Under a 1939 law, all antiquities found in Italy must be turned over to
the state.

     The MFA returned artifacts including a statue and a bas-relief believed
to have decorated Hadrian's Villa outside Rome, and vases from central and
southern Italy mostly depicting scenes from ancient Greek myths.

     Boston's antiquities were the first to be delivered to Italy, and were
exhibited in October at the National Roman Museum. Those included in the Met
deal are set to return progressively over the next years.

     MFA director Malcolm Rogers has said the treasures were purchased in
good faith between the 1960s and 1990s, but the antiquities were returned
after Italian authorities presented fresh evidence of their illegal origin
during yearlong negotiations.

http://news.bostonherald.com/