[MSN] Artwork returned, a partnership gained. The Getty will return a fine Aphrodite and other pieces to Italy, but in so doing gains a promised influx of loans of classical works. The Villa could benefit.

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CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Artwork returned, a partnership gained
The Getty will return a fine Aphrodite and other pieces to Italy, but in so
doing gains a promised influx of loans of classical works. The Villa could
benefit.
By Christopher Knight
Times Staff Writer

August 2, 2007

The most dramatic outcome of Wednesday's eagerly anticipated news of a deal
between Italy and the Getty Museum over looted antiquities concerned the
fate of Aphrodite. The monumental 5th century BC goddess, believed by many
to be from the ancient Greek city of Morgantina on the island of Sicily, is
easily among the greatest ancient sculptures in an American museum
collection. Now it is among 40 works the Getty has agreed to return to
Italy.

The logjam in negotiations was broken when Italy agreed to take its demand
for the 4th to 2nd century BC "Victorious Youth," also known as the Getty
Bronze, off the table. Both sides have postponed resolution of that issue
until Italy finishes a new criminal investigation of it.

Less dramatic - but potentially more far-reaching - is another aspect of the
deal. Italy announced it would loan important works of ancient art to the
beautifully refurbished Getty Villa, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the
edge of Malibu. Collection sharing among art museums is an idea whose appeal
has been growing. Agreements like this will only accelerate the interest. 

That prospect is significant for two main reasons.

First, the Getty Villa has an exclusive focus on antiquities. Unlike the New
York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which
struck similar deals with Italy last year, its collections don't aspire to
spanning global human history. The Getty has advantages that such
encyclopedic museums don't. 

The Villa is, in fact, the only art museum in the United States devoted
solely to the Greek, Etruscan, Roman and other cultures of the ancient
Mediterranean. Loans of major objects to the Met and Boston will certainly
add sheen to their great historical collections. But antiquities are just
one small part of those museums' attractions.

There is something to be said for the total immersion that a focused museum
provides. Italy, where state collections of significant antiquities are
anything but scarce, has the wherewithal to provide magnificent loans that
will be extraordinarily meaningful in the Villa's context. Art has richer
import and significance in the context of other art.

Second, the museum can make the best use of those loans, given the Getty's
vast resources. Set aside the legal and ethical issues around the disputed
Aphrodite for a moment. The work that has been done on the sculpture, in
everything from conservation to historical and scientific research, is
extraordinary. Dedicating those same resources to potential loans from Italy
as well as to the exceptional objects in the Getty's own collection holds
enormous promise. 

The Getty has been acquiring masterworks in a serious way for only about 25
years, making its collection development tough. By contrast, the Met and
Boston began collecting late in the 19th century, when great art was
plentiful and declining aristocracies in Europe were eager to transform into
cash the paintings and sculptures accumulated over generations. 

Indeed, art-world eyebrows went sky-high in June when the Getty did not buy
the 2,000-year-old Roman bronze sculpture "Artemis and the Stag," foolishly
being sold off from the venerable collection of the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y. It wasn't cheap; on the block it fetched $28.6
million, becoming the most expensive antiquity and piece of sculpture from
any period to sell at auction. 

But given the quality of the Roman bronze, its pristine ownership record,
the Getty collection's gaps and - not least - the presence of the Getty
Bronze, it seemed a natural purchase. (The Getty, like most museums, does
not discuss such decisions.) Instead, a great ancient bronze on public view
for 50 years disappeared into an unidentified private collection.

When adjusted for inflation, the cost of the Artemis was about $6 million
less than the Getty paid for the monumental Aphrodite in the more tepid
antiquities market 20 years ago. That expenditure has turned out to be more
like a rental than an acquisition. The failure to permanently rescue the
Artemis from oblivion was tragic.

One reason for the intense urgency that built up around the issue of looted
antiquities is that museum (and private collector) demand now far outstrips
art supply.

Smart collection sharing can help relieve the pressure.

There are practical dangers, mostly because of the constant transit of
fragile art objects from place to place. But long-term loans, which are what
the agreement with Italy appears to suggest, minimize that risk.

Italy has done some innovative thinking about ancient art. When Culture
Minister Francesco Rutelli was mayor of Rome in the 1990s, he oversaw the
much-admired sprucing up of the city in advance of millennium celebrations.
Art museums were a focus of the monumental project.

Among the most inspired schemes was a new exhibition space for antiquities
from the Capitoline Museum, carved out of an abandoned 1930s power station
across town from the main facility.

The Centrale Montemartini now provides a fascinating exhibition space that
juxtaposes ancient statues of Apollo, Athena and Dionysus against a backdrop
of electrical turbines and industrial machinery. Power - ancient and modern,
agrarian and industrial, mythological and actual - is marvelously evoked.

The Centrale Montemartini and the Getty Villa are very different venues, of
course, but each is a creative response to a focused passion for ancient
art. That's the sort of helpful, art-centered enthusiasm that this week's
agreement between Rome and Los Angeles can continue to fuel.


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christopher.knight at latimes.com

http://www.calendarlive.com/