[MSN] The University of Virginia plans to return two ancient Greek sculptures to Italy nearly three decades after tomb raiders looted them from Sicily.

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University of Virginia to return looted Greek statues to Italy


2008-01-04 15:54:53 -

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP) - The University of Virginia plans to return
two ancient Greek sculptures to Italy nearly three decades after tomb
raiders looted them from Sicily.
The acroliths of the Greek goddesses were created about 525 B.C. out of
cloth, wood and marble. They have been on display at the university's art
museum since being donated to the institution in 2002.
«We're honored that we had them,» said Malcolm Bell III, an art history
professor at the university. «We took good care of them. A lot of students
saw them and learned from them. Now we're happy to return them to Italy.
The life-size statues were originally displayed inside a temple in
Morgantina, an ancient Greek settlement near what is now the Italian city of
Aidone. They are thought to represent Demeter, the Greek goddess of
agriculture and grain, and her daughter Persephone, the queen of the
underworld.
The University of Virginia has not disclosed who donated the statues to its
museum. However, the New York Times reported in September that New York
diamond merchant and philanthropist Maurice Tempelsman previously owned the
acroliths.
Upon receiving the statues in 2002, the university negotiated a deal to keep
them for five years, with the understanding that they would be returned to
Italy afterward. The Italian government endorsed the deal.
To mark the return of the sculptures, the school will host a symposium Feb.
2 titled «The Goddesses Return,» the Daily Progress newspaper reported
Friday.
Following the event _ which will feature discussions on museum ethics, the
antiquities market and archaeological preservation _ members of the Italian
police, or carabinieri, will escort the acroliths back to Italy.
«We're very pleased and grateful and happy to be getting these magnificent
statues back,» said Silvia Limoncini, a cultural counselor of the Italian
Embassy in Washington. «It's an example of the excellent relationship
between Italy and the United States.

Since their discovery in 1978, the two acroliths have traveled the world via
the black market of looted antiquities. According to the New York Times,
they were smuggled through Switzerland and surfaced in a London showroom in
1980. Tempelsman bought the acroliths from the London dealer for $1 million
(¤0.68 million), the newspaper reported, adding that there is no indication
that Tempelsman knew they had a potentially shady origin.
In the late 1980s, the statues were on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum
in Los Angeles. But after an Italian prosecutor notified the museum that
they were possibly illegally excavated, the acroliths were returned to
Tempelsman.
Upon the acroliths' return to Italy, they will be displayed at a museum in
Aidone. In the coming years, the sculptures will be joined by other
priceless works of repatriated art from American museums.
The return of the acroliths is especially appropriate, Bell said, because
the myths of Demeter and Persephone involved themes of traveling and
returning. After Persephone is kidnapped and taken to the underworld, her
mother searches for her across the Earth. Meanwhile, Persephone returns to
Earth once a year, heralding spring and rebirth.

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