Getty Museum to Return 40 Artworks
Italy to Receive Contested Objects in Exchange for Loans of Others
The J. Paul Getty Museum agreed to return to the Republic of Italy 40 works of classical art that were illegally looted before their purchase by the American institution.
The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Italian Ministry of Culture jointly announced on August 1, 2007 that the Los Angeles, California institution will repatriate 40 classical antiquities to Italy in a timely fashion. Throughout year-long and arduous negotiations, officials from the Italian Culture Ministry maintained that 46 of 52 objects in the recently restored and expanded Getty Villa's collection were looted from Italian soil before they were acquired by the American museum. Lawyers for the Getty Museum insist that its curators were unaware of the circumstances surrounding the artworks' illegal excavation prior to their arrival on United States soil.
Dr. Michael Brand, eloquent Director of the Getty Museum and Villa since 2005, former Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and an expert in Indian art and architecture, indicated to The New York Times on August 1, 2007 that 39 of the 40 pieces will probably return to Italy by the year's end. The schedule of their delivery is contingent on the works' state of fragility and measures needed to be taken for their safe transportation from California to Italy. The arrangement between the Getty Trust and the Italian government calls for renewed cooperation in matters regarding: loans of significant objects from Italy to the Getty Villa; joint special exhibitions; archaeological and art-historical research; and conservation of works of art. Current Italian law does not permit the international loan of any artwork for more than four years.
Aphrodite (?) and Youth Remain on View Temporarily
Seen by many as a gesture of good will on the Italians' part, the Getty Villa's oversized Greek Cult Statue of a Goddess, Perhaps Aphrodite (425-400 B.C.) will continue to be exhibited in Malibu until 2010. Purchased for $18 million (US) in 1988, the acrolithic or multi-stone composition was the subject of a closed-door international conference on May 9, 2007. The workshop was attended by nine experts in the fields of archaeology, art history, conservation, geology, soil and pollen analysis and museum studies; representatives from Sicily's Regional Ministry of Culture and Environmental Heritage and the Archaeological Institute of America were also present. The meeting's aim was to establish as best as possible the limestone and marble statue's exact provenance (place of origin).
Pending the outcome of legal deliberations in Pesaro, Italy regarding the history of its discovery, the Getty Museum's Statue of a Victorious Youth (300-100 B.C.) was removed from the sensitive proceedings. Cast in bronze by an unknown Greek artist who was possibly a pupil of Lysippos (late 4th Century B.C.), Getty officials insist that the work was found in international waters, nullifying Italy's claim to the statue.
In a subsequent triumph for cultural diplomacy, the Italian government announced on August 2, 2007 its intention to redraw its civil lawsuit against the J. Paul Getty Museum.
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