Calif. Museum Will Return 40 Objects to Italy
August 2, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
The J. Paul Getty Museum, in Los Angeles, has agreed to return 40 antiquities to Italy, after the country declared the pieces had been looted, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Among the works to be sent back to Italy is a prized statue thought to be of Venus, which the Getty will keep until December 2010. The rest of the objects — vases, sculptures, and metal works — are expected to be returned to Italy by the end of the year.
This marks the third such agreement between an American museum and the Italian government, after New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art returned 21 artifacts and the Museum of Fine Art, in Boston, returned 13.
In 2005 Italy brought charges against Marion True, the Getty’s former antiquities curator, accusing her of trafficking in looted antiquities, reports the Times. The museum had worried that returning the antiquities would hurt her defense, but the Getty’s director, Michael Brand, said: “One would have reason to hope the agreement will improve things for Marion.”
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