[MSN] Lacking input from the Italians, the Getty plans to settle unanswered questions concerning a statue of Aphrodite on its own.

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MUSEUMS
Disputed statue to be studied
Lacking input from the Italians, the Getty plans to settle unanswered
questions concerning a statue of Aphrodite on its own.
By Mike Boehm
Times Staff Writer

March 9, 2007

While reaffirming that it still intends to transfer ownership of one of its
most prized artifacts, a statue of the goddess Aphrodite, to Italy, the J.
Paul Getty Museum says it will convene a panel of scholars in two months to
plan scientific detective work needed to settle unanswered questions
concerning the piece, which the Italian government claims as a looted
antiquity.

Since last fall, the Getty has been at an impasse in its negotiations with
Italian cultural officials over the fate of 52 works in its collection that
Italy believes were looted.

Lacking input from the Italians, the Getty has decided to go ahead on its
own with a study of the Aphrodite it proposed last October as a prelude to
returning the piece.

"We would not be saying we were prepared to transfer title if we did not
think that is the right thing to do, but scholars here think we would be
remiss" in not trying to answer questions about the statue in the meantime,
Ron Hartwig, a spokesman for the J. Paul Getty Trust, said Thursday.

The museum paid a Swiss owner $18 million for the marble and limestone
statue in 1988, but questions rose immediately as to whether it might have
been looted.

At the May 9 "workshop," experts will review past analysis of residue from
the statue that's kept in test tubes, museum director Michael Brand said,
while mapping out further scientific tests that need to be done. Italian
authorities say the Aphrodite was looted from Sicily, and the Getty agrees
there are enough "troubling" questions about its origin to transfer
ownership, Brand said.

Hartwig said there's little reason to believe that "something ...
extraordinary" will come out of the study to change the museum's mind.

Talks between the Getty and Italian cultural ministers fell apart in
November when Italy demanded the return of another of the museum's treasures
- a bronze statue of a young athlete that the Getty contends is not a
questionable acquisition. The Getty had proposed returning 26 objects
besides the Aphrodite while continuing to negotiate over 20 others. Hartwig
said the offer stands, but "we have had no input back" from Italy.

The Getty says it will subject its study to peer review, then publish it on
its website.

The scholars listed as workshop participants are Clemente Marconi of New
York University and Malcolm Bell III of the University of Virginia, both
experts in the art and archeology of ancient Sicily when it was colonized by
the Greeks; Pamela I. Chester, an expert on archeological pollen analysis
from New Zealand; Rosario Alaimo, a geochemist with expertise in limestone
from the University of Palermo in Italy; and John Twilley, a New York-based
art conservation scientist.

Hartwig said cultural authorities based in Rome and Sicily have been invited
to send representatives to the workshop but that the Getty hasn't gotten an
R.S.V.P.

mike.boehm at latimes.com