![]() ![]() Aphrodite will be going back to Italy, but not before 2010. The Getty did manage to keep at least a little of its honour intact in the agreement, and wrested some important concessions of its own. Another major work is a statue of Apollo, which currently graces a room called the Basilica. In other cases we're losing smaller, less aesthetically important items, but which might be a linchpin of a particular display."Īpart from Aphrodite, perhaps the most prominently displayed piece now destined for shipment back to Italy is a striking painted sculpture called Griffons Attacking a Fallen Doe, which sits directly outside the lifts on the first floor of the Getty Villa. Michael Brand, the Getty's museum director, sounded distinctly rueful about what he was about to lose when he made his own public statement. At the same time the noose around the art traffickers grows ever tighter." a historic agreement that creates an irreversible precedent. This, a triumphant Rutelli told a news conference in Rome, was "a victory for cultural diplomacy and of shared ethical values. The Getty railed and yelped and complained, but in the end, with emails and faxes flying right up to the deadline, the museum's management essentially folded. For good measure, just to turn the screws a little tighter, the Italians also slapped True with a civil suit. She recommended purchase of 18 of the 40 pieces now being returned. The Italians had an extra weapon in their armoury in the form of Marion True, the former curator of antiquities at the Getty who has been on trial in Rome for the past several months on charges of receiving stolen artworks. Culture Ministry lawyers described the 26 pieces not as a concession by the Getty but a seizure - "part of our legal process", according to lawyer Maurizio Fiorilli.Ĭulture Minister Francesco Rutelli, who knows a thing or two about stolen art, having spent years as the mayor of Rome, said he would not back down and threatened to take out "cultural sanctions" against the Getty - essentially, refusing to lend the museum anything or co-operate in any way - if the museum did not cough up some more of its treasures. The museum clearly hoped this would be enough to placate them, but it was not, and negotiations broke down shortly afterwards. According to internal Getty documents leaked to the Los Angeles Times two years ago, the Getty's own lawyers identified 82 pieces, including 54 classified as masterpieces, that were of questionable origin and risked being investigated.Ī first attempt at an agreement took place last November, when the Getty unilaterally offered up 26 pieces to the Italians. The Italians had originally asked for the return of 46 pieces, although they let it be known they had documentation suggesting that as many as 400 artworks were of suspect origin. The Getty made no admission of wrongdoing in the text of the agreement - reached just hours before a July 31 deadline imposed by the Italians - but the deal was unmistakably a huge climbdown for an institution desperate to rid itself of the stench of criminality and scandal and establish a new reputation as a benevolent - if still extraordinarily rich and powerful - force in the international art market. ![]() It was then moved by means of a circuitous route of antiquities dealers and middlemen operating in the shadows of the international art trade. The Italians have claimed all along that Aphrodite was stolen - first from the Sicilian archeological site of Morgantina, a former Greek colony, and repository of countless Greek art treasures, many now looted. ![]() ![]() Thanks to a deal just cut between the Getty curators and the Italian Government, a deal preceded by two years of scandal, criminal prosecutions and extraordinary diplomatic wrangling, Aphrodite will be one of 40 prestigious pieces heading back to the old continent. But it is not going to stay that way for much longer. Dating to the 5th century BC, it is frequently described as the greatest Greek statue in the United States. The 2.2m piece - like so much in Hollywood, just a little larger than life - is the pride of the museum. Anyone who visits the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, the great faux-Roman summer house built for a famously eccentric oil billionaire on the shores of the Pacific, can't help but notice the imposing limestone statue of Aphrodite that forms the centrepiece of a ground-floor room called Gods and Goddesses. ![]()
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