Good News for Marion True UPDATED

Oh my prophetic soul!

Not only has the Getty's signing of the the 40-object repatriation agreement with Italy brought a withdrawal of civil charges against the Getty Museum's former antiquities curator, Marion True, but Jason Felch and Livia Borghese report in the LA Times that the Italians have now indicated that nothing much is going to happen to her in the criminal case. According to prosecutor Paolo Ferri, that trial should now be wrapped up more expeditiously, thanks to the agreement with the Getty. (But I do miss the old familiar investigative team of Felcholino..."Felchese" just doesn't have the same ring.)

Ferri told the LA Times:

True is an American citizen and will be able to evade my penal sanctions by going to the U.S....For me, the trial has been won.

Can the newspaper now search its files for a more appealing photo of Marion True? That grim 2005 Italian perp-walk shot is getting to be a even more tired than the last time I complained about it.

UPDATE: Today's detailed NY Times story supports the sense that True will soon get off the hook. I love the quote from that suddenly sympathetic soul, Italian prosecutor Paolo Ferri.

Elisabetta Povoledo writes:

Mr. Ferri...said the state's intention was not to put Ms. True behind bars but to make a point about illicit artifacts, something he said he felt had been achieved. "Getting a one-year or 100-year sentence is not important to me," he said in a telephone interview. "What is important is that the antiquities market understands that the behavior of the past has criminal implications."

Ms. True, he said, "shouldn't have to pay for everyone."

NOW he tells us! I think that's what True was saying all along.