No rest for the weary Getty, and Met targeted

Woes continue for the J. Paul Getty Museum. With one of its former curators, Marion True, on trial in Italy for trafficking in artifacts looted from Italian sites [see "Artworld," Nov. '05], the Italian government seeking the return of some 40 questionable objects, and museum president Barry Munitz under fire for improper use of tax-exempt funds and a suspicious land deal, the museum is now facing renewed demands from the Greek government for the return of four allegedly looted objects. One item was purchased in 1955 by J. Paul Getty himself, and three others were acquired in 1993. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Greek officials claim that, before the Getty purchased the works in 1993, they notified the museum that the items were most likely stolen, though officials admit they still lack hard evidence. On Oct. 29, the J. Paul Getty Trust announced that five members of its board had formed a special committee to conduct an independent review of the charges.

Since 1996 Greece has sought the return of a gold Macedonian funerary wreath, purchased from a Swiss dealer who acted as an intermediary. Also in question are an inscribed tombstone and an Athenian marble torso of a young woman. The torso was acquired from a London dealer also under investigation in Italy, and Polaroids of the sculpture seized in a raid of the dealer's warehouse show the piece encrusted with dirt, as if recently, and illegally, excavated. The last item, an archaic votive relief purchased by Getty in 1955, had earlier been reported in an archeological journal as stolen from a Greek site at Thasos.

Meanwhile, following extensive renovations, the museum is set to reopen its Getty Villa in Malibu, where 1,200 works from the Getty's antiquities collection will go on display beginning Jan. 28.

In related news, the Italian government is also seeking the return of a Greek vase, the Euphronios Krater, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The krater, acquired in 1972, is believed to be from a tomb located just north of Rome. Over the years the Met has refused to return it, citing a lack of "irrefutable proof." The piece was sold to the museum by Robert E. Hecht, Jr., who is also on trial in Italy along with True.

Hecht's private memoirs, seized during a 2001 raid on his Paris apartment, reveal that, contrary to the provenance he provided to the Met at the time of the acquisition, he may have actually purchased the vase in 1971 from Italian dealer Giacomo Medici, who was convicted last year of trafficking in looted art. At the time of the Met sale, Hecht claimed that he obtained the krater from a Lebanese man who had owned it since 1939, which would make it a legal purchase. The veracity of Hecht's memoirs has been called into question since they contain both stories of how he obtained the krater, though Italian officials and other art experts seem to give more weight to the illicit Medici version.

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