University Promptly Returns to Italy What Tempelsman Donated

Is this really possible?

What Elisabetta Povoledo reported yesterday in the NY Times, regarding the odyssey of rare sixth-century B.C. marble sculptures previously owned by Maurice Tempelsman, former swain of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, sure sounds to me like a dubious application of the fractional gift technique, which allows collectors to spread tax deductions over several years when donating works to nonprofits.

Povoledo wrote:

In 2002 Mr. [Mario] Bondioli Osio [former head of an Italian commission on cultural property], Mr. Tempelsman and the University of Virginia worked out a deal under which Mr. Tempelsman would give the university partial ownership of the statues for five years and then cede them entirely. On Jan. 1 the acroliths---their wooden bodies long ago lost, leaving two heads, three hands and three feet---became the property of the university, which promptly returned them to Italy.

It's a nice gesture, but the IRS might not appreciate it. Donations, fractional or otherwise, are tax deductible if an institution intends to use the property for its exempt purpose. In the university's case, that would be education, not repatriation. A tax deduction for possibly looted antiquities, acquired by the university and then promptly returned to Italy sounds to me like fodder for the grazing Grassley.