Indictment Targets Getty's Acquisitions
By Tracy Wilkinson and Suzanne Muchnic
Times Staff Writers

May 20, 2005

ROME — In a long-running legal battle with broad implications for
museum collections worldwide, a senior curator at the J. Paul Getty
Museum in Los Angeles has been indicted here on criminal charges
involving the acquisition of precious antiquities in this
archeologically rich country, authorities in Rome said.

Marion True, 56, curator for antiquities at the museum and director
of the Getty Villa, is accused of criminal conspiracy to receive
stolen goods and illicit receipt of archeological items. It is also
alleged that True in effect laundered goods that were purchased by a
private collection and then sold to the Getty in paper transactions
that created phony documentation.

The plunder of Italian treasures has gone on for many years. Despite
efforts to stem it, valuable art — some of it stolen — has
made its
way into the hands of major museums and collectors like the Getty,
authorities believe. The criminal indictment of a top curator was
seen as an indication that Italian officials are taking more
aggressive steps to curb such practices.

Getty officials said they had cooperated in the investigation and
they defended True.

If the prosecution is successful, the Italians intend to pursue
cases at other museums. The plunder of Italy for its artworks is a
crime tantamount to "stealing history," the indictment maintains. By
attempting to prosecute an official from such a rich museum, Italian
authorities said, they hope to send a clear message that they will
no longer tolerate the vast and systematic robbing of antiquities
from a country replete with historical treasures.

"We want this case to be a big deterrent," Capt. Massimiliano
Quagliarella, who commands Italy's Carabinieri paramilitary police
unit that oversees archeological theft, said in an interview. "It is
important to stop the phenomenon of illegal excavations and illegal
exportation by eliminating the demand and thus eliminating the
offer."

He and the main prosecutor on the case briefed a reporter on the
contents of the indictment. The prosecutor asked that his name not
be published because the case is pending and he did not want to
appear to be trying it in the press. The trial is scheduled to begin
in Rome on July 18, at which time the full details of the indictment
will be disclosed.

Several attorneys who specialize in cultural heritage issues say
that prosecuting a museum curator is unusual but not surprising in a
field fraught with conflicting professional agendas and national
laws.

"The fact that Italy is following through with this reflects greater
frustration of countries that can't seem to stem the flow of
antiquities," said Lawrence M. Kaye of the Herrick, Feinstein law
firm in New York. "They are going to look for other measures until
they are able to do so.

"I do think it's problematical if museum curators, particularly
reputable ones, are going to be the subject of indictments around
the world. It certainly sends a chill out, warning people to be very
careful about what kind of antiquities they are buying."

The case is the latest example of national efforts to retrieve lost
artworks. Greece wants the British Museum to return the marbles that
Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon and wants the Louvre to hand
over the "Winged Victory" statue taken from the island of
Samothrace. Egypt wants the Rosetta Stone, also at the British
Museum. Throughout the world, museums are attempting to identify and
repatriate artworks taken from Holocaust victims by the Nazis.

The indictment of True comes after nearly 10 years of investigation.
The case involves about 40 items acquired by the Getty in recent
years, the authorities said. Investigators have not released a list
of the objects, but they said that two particularly notable Greek
statues of deities were included.

One sculpture, a keystone of the Getty's collection, is a 7 1/2 -
foot likeness of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, carved in marble
and limestone in the 5th century BC. The Getty imported the work in
1987 and declared its value at $20 million when it cleared customs.
The other work, a 33-inch figure of Tyche, the goddess of fortune,
was made of marble in the 2nd century BC. It is part of the
collection amassed by New York art patrons Lawrence and Barbara
Fleischman, acquired by the Getty in 1996 as part gift, part
purchase.

True is traveling outside the U.S. and could not be reached for
comment. But the Getty issued a statement expressing disappointment
in the action: "During the course of the Italian authorities'
preliminary investigation, the Getty reviewed and provided to the
prosecutors thousands of pages of documents from our files. We trust
that this trial will result in her exoneration and end further
damage to the personal and professional reputation of Dr. True."

The prosecutor will not decide what penalty to seek until shortly
before the trial, but authorities indicated that it is likely to be
much less than the 10-year sentence handed down to Italian art
dealer Giacomo Medici, recently convicted of trafficking in
antiquities.

Originally, the charges against True were part of a larger case that
included Medici and a Paris-based art dealer, Emanuel Robert Hecht.

The cases were divided when Medici requested a "fast-track"
prosecution under rules that allow shorter sentences in speedier
trials. Medici was convicted, sentenced and ordered to pay fines
late last year. He is appealing the decision.

Hecht has been barred from entering Italy for his alleged role in
selling looted Greek silver to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York.

The evidence against True, Italian authorities said, is similar to
that used to convict Medici, including photographs of items that
authorities believed might have been stolen. Medici was involved in
numerous sales of artifacts that ended up at the Getty,
investigators said.

Italian prosecutors traveled to Los Angeles and New York to
investigate the case. True was also deposed in Rome on March 15 and
16, the Italian authorities said. Getty officials have said they
have found no evidence of wrongdoing. A lawyer for True, Francesco
Isolabella, has described the acquisitions made by his client as
being carried out "in the clear light of day."

The Getty has a policy of returning objects to their countries of
origin should evidence indicate that is the right thing to do. But
the legal action in Italy comes at a time when the multifaceted
Getty Trust is mired in controversy over the departure of Getty
Museum Director Deborah Gribbon, who resigned in October citing
philosophical differences with J. Paul Getty Trust President Barry
Munitz.

The case is also shaping up as a major distraction to the long-
awaited reopening of the villa. The Roman-style facility on the edge
of Malibu was the Getty's all-purpose museum until 1997, when the
new museum opened at the Getty Center in Brentwood. The villa has
been closed since then for renovation and redesigned as a study
center exclusively devoted to antiquities. After repeated delays,
the facility is expected to open to the public at the end of the
year.

True, a leader in the field of antiquities, has worked at the Getty
for 23 years. She spent her first two years, 1982 to 1984, as an
assistant to antiquities curator Jiri Frel, who was hired in 1973 by
the museum's founder, oil baron J. Paul Getty.

Frel built the antiquities holding quickly, acquiring showpieces and
a huge study collection through purchases and gifts, but he was
forced to retire in 1984 after disclosures that he had traded
inflated appraisals for donated antiquities.

True was promoted to the position of associate curator upon Frel's
departure. She took charge of the antiquities department in 1986,
the year she received her doctorate from Harvard University.

On True's watch, the Getty's antiquities collection has continued to
grow — under international scrutiny.

In 1999, the Getty took the much-publicized step of returning to
Italy three works: a 480 BC Greek terra cotta drinking cup that was
illegally excavated; a 2nd century torso of the god Mithra stolen
from a private Italian collection; and a 2nd century Roman head of
an athlete illicitly taken from an excavation storeroom. In
announcing the decision to return the objects, the Getty credited
True's "vigilance and extensive contact with specialists in ancient
art."

The towering sculpture of Aphrodite at issue created a furor in
1988, soon after the museum unveiled the artwork, purchased the
previous year. Italian authorities promptly launched an inquiry,
charging that the statue might have been unearthed by scavengers and
smuggled out of Sicily in the 1970s. The controversy died down when
no evidence materialized, only to boil up again in the indictment of
True.

The current legal action also has renewed questions about Greek,
Roman and Etruscan antiquities amassed by Lawrence Fleischman, who
died in 1997, and his wife, Barbara, a member of the Getty Trust's
board of directors. In 1994 and 1995, when the Getty and the
Cleveland Museum of Art displayed about 200 works from the
collection in a traveling show, some critics objected to the lack of
documentation. The prosecution of True alleges that the Fleischman
collection was used to launder Getty acquisitions.

In 1995, the museum adopted a formal policy against acquiring
antiquities that lacked documentation or were not part of an
established collection. The following year the Getty acquired about
300 pieces from the Fleischmans. Museum officials said most of the
items were donated but did not disclose the value of the collection.
Estimates in the press have pegged it from $60 million to $80
million.

In the last decade, the Getty has sharply reduced its collecting of
antiquities. When the villa reopens, the existing collection will
fill the galleries and the program will concentrate on archeological
conservation and research.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-et-
getty20may20,0,3296531,print.story

Wilkinson reported from Rome and Muchnic from Los Angeles.

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Martin G Conde
Washington DC, USA