Getty Antiquities Mess: Brand Takes a Stand; True Faces New Charges

The following are excerpts from a press release just in from the J. Paul Getty Museum (and not yet up on its website):

The Getty has decided to return to Italy...26 objects---including a number of highly significant works of art---despite the [Italian Culture] Ministry's apparent repudiation of an agreement signed jointly by representatives of the Ministry and the Getty in Rome on October 5. Among other points, that agreement would have guaranteed long-term loans to replace certain of the objects being returned by the Getty, as well as establish a framework for long-term collaborative efforts.

"While we continue to hope that the Italian government will honor its commitment to work collaboratively with the Getty in the future, as it agreed to do in October, the Getty's transfer of objects is not conditioned on any such arrangement. Quite simply, we believe that transferring these objects to Italy is the right thing to do, whether or not we now receive anything in return," said Dr. Brand.

As previously reported by CultureGrrl, Rutelli last month took the occasion of the signing of an antiquities agreement with Switzerland to declare that negotiations with the Getty were on the verge of "rupture" because of the museum's unwillingness to return the aforementioned sculptures of the youth and the goddess, called by Italy "the Athlete of Lysippos" and "the Morgantina Venus." Now, it appears, the "rupture" has occurred.

In its just-issued press release, the Getty listed the 26 objects it had agreed to return, but it has not, at this writing, posted on its website detailed information and photos, as did the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, when it concluded its amicable agreement with Italy in September.

This seems like the worst possible outcome for the Getty: giving up objects from its collection without getting any closure, let alone important objects that were to have been loaned to the Getty by Italy (as in separate agreements with Boston and with the Metropolitan Museum). The LA Times recently reported that Italy was threatening a "cultural embargo" of the Getty if negotiations broke down.

And this is also bad news for the sacrificial curator, Marion True, still on trial in Italy for her actions at the Getty and, just today, hit with more legal woes: According to Reuters, Greek prosecutors today charged True "with knowingly buying an ancient artifact which had been illegally dug up and smuggled out of Greece 13 years ago."

A Greek police source told Reuters that the former Getty curator, "as well as two Greeks and two other foreigners...are charged in connection with [a 4th-century B.C.] golden wreath which was sold to a Getty representative in 1993 for $1.15 million."