[MSN] Fresh claims fuel row over Getty's 'stolen' antiquities.

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Fresh claims fuel row over Getty's 'stolen' antiquities

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday January 4, 2007
The Guardian 

The Getty museum, repository of some of the finest antiquities in the world,
yesterday discounted charges it had traded in plundered art by acquiring the
2,400-year-old statue that is the jewel of its collection.
The furore over looted antiquities at the Getty comes at a difficult time
for the Los Angeles museum, which last year saw a former curator and an
executive of its trust charged with theft.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times stirred the controversy by quoting Italian
and American archaeologists and former Getty curators as saying they had
strenuously warned the museum not to buy a marble and limestone statue of
Aphrodite because its provenance was uncertain.

The Getty Trust responded in a statement, saying: "The [statue] was acquired
by the Getty based on information and research into its provenance available
at the time."
The 2.3 metre (7ft 6in) figure is the most prized piece in the museum, which
is blessed with a $5bn (£2.5bn) endowment left by the late oil magnate J
Paul Getty. At the time of its purchase in 1988 for a then record $18m, the
museum was told that it had been in the possession of a Swiss collector
since 1939, the year it became illegal to export antiques from Italy.

But the Times said the statue had been illegally dug up in Sicily, and that
members of the Swiss collector's family were unaware of the statue's
existence.

Instead, dirt encrusted in the folds of Aphrodite's limestone gown indicated
another history of a recent and clandestine excavation. The statue also had
fractures in the torso, suggesting it had been broken into pieces for easier
smuggling.

"Any museum professional looking at an archeological piece in those
conditions had to suspect it came from an illicit origin," Luis Monreal, the
director of the Getty Conservation Institute, told the newspaper. Mr Monreal
advised the former director, John Walsh, to carry out pollen tests on the
dirt found on the statue to establish its former resting place. The tests
were not performed.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/