The Met to Monteleone: Drop Your Chariot Claim and We'll Host a Celebratory Event

Here's a novel approach: Dispose of cultural patrimony claims through event planning.

Tito Mazzetta, the Atlanta attorney who has been pursuing the claim made by the Italian village of Monteleone di Spoleto for return of the Metropolitan Museum's Etruscan chariot, sent me a copy of the letter he received two years ago from Sharon Cott, vice president secretary and counsel of the Met, responding to his repatriation demand on behalf of the village.

In her letter, dated Dec. 17, 2004, Cott expressed "surprise" at the demand for an object that had been owned by the museum for more than 100 years, "respectfully decline[d]" to relinquish it, and then added this sweetener:

We would be pleased to discuss our plans [for the new Roman galleries] with the Mayor of Monteleone di Spoleto, and perhaps could highlight the contributions of the Umbrian region to Etruscan art through an event planned to coincide with the opening. Should your client be intent on pursuing what we respectfully submit is a futile legal claim..., we could not engage in such a dialogue.

The chariot or a swell party (or a scholarly symposium, perhaps)? We'll take the chariot.

When I spoke to Mazzetta yesterday, he conceded that the Italian Culture Ministry had yet to throw its weight behind the little village's quest. While conceding that "the statute of limitations has run" on the alleged smuggling of the chariot, he argued that "the new principle" is to repatriate objects of unique cultural and historical importance to their places of origin.

While this concept has not reached the status of "principle," countries of origin are increasingly arguing that even when legal remedies fail, ethical and moral imperatives should prevail. There is some merit to that argument in theory, but in practice it is an ambiguous and highly subjective standard, fraught with potential confusion and conflict. The rules of engagement on this are still being written.