[MSN] Italy-Japan (Miho Museum). Witness fingers Japanese museum in Italian art-trafficking case

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Witness fingers Japanese museum in Italian art-trafficking case
Kazuki Matsuura / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

The expert witness for the prosecution in a trial in Italy over the
trafficking of stolen art objects to the United States has claimed a
Japanese museum is housing items unearthed illegally in Italy. 

As the witness named the Miho Museum in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, the Italian
prosecutors likely will begin a full-scale investigation into possible
trafficking of stolen items into Japan, sources said. 

The expert, who has been investigating trafficking connected to the J. Paul
Getty Museum in Los Angeles, named the museum in an effort to shed light on
the practice of art objects being illegally dug up and passed on to museums
in countries other than the United States. 

According to the expert, some artwork housed in the Miho Museum, including a
decorative sculpture of marble from ancient Rome, known as an oscilla, were
identified from pictures of stolen items seized from a smuggling syndicate
by the prosecutors. 

The prosecutors have been investigating the smuggling ring, which has sold
antiques illegally unearthed from archaeological sites and other places and
shipped them to museums in Japan, the United States and other countries
since the mid-1990s. The investigation led prosecutors to the United States.


The J. Paul Getty Museum is believed to have obtained many antiques from a
syndicate based in Switzerland, and a curator and an American antique art
dealer were charged with smuggling as they are believed to have cooperated
with the syndicate. The trial is taking place in a Rome criminal court. 

The Italian prosecutors have also confirmed a Japanese antique art dealer
was involved in dealing between the syndicate and Japanese museums, sources
said. 

The investigators are said to be trying to match seized pictures with
suspicious items housed in several Japanese museums. 

Nobuo Tsuji, director of the Miho Museum, said: "I don't think all artwork
housed in our museum has a legal problem. But if the Italian government
officially asks us to return certain items, we'll consider how to proceed
then." 

(Jun. 4, 2007)

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