Getty Ex-Curator Says Antiquities Trade `Corrupt,' Art Smuggled

By Vernon Silver

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The J. Paul Getty Museum's former antiquities
chief said the market for ancient art is probably the ``most
corrupt'' of art markets, with unscrupulous dealers peddling
smuggled goods, according to a written statement made to a Rome
court where she's on trial for buying loot for the Getty.

Marion True, the former antiquities curator of the Los Angeles-based
Getty, the world's wealthiest art institution, said she fought the
illicit trade by tightening the Getty's acquisition standards, and
by purchasing and documenting objects of unknown origin so they
wouldn't be lost to the private trade.

``The museum had to accept the premise that the majority of
antiquities available on the market had, in all probability, been
exported from the countries of origin illegally,'' True, 58, wrote,
explaining why the Getty adopted policies that restricted artifacts
it could buy.

True's lawyers submitted her statement today to the Rome Tribunal as
evidence in her trial, in which she's charged with conspiracy and
receiving stolen antiquities for the Getty's collection. True denies
the charges.

Among the steps she took to battle the illicit trade was a ban on
buying objects that hadn't been part of a known collection or been
documented in a publication before 1995. Last month the Getty
further limited its antiquities purchases in most cases to those
documented before 1970.

``I knew, in fact, that the antiquities market was filled with risks
for those who wished to purchase objects, as it included many
unscrupulous dealers, who had no qualms about selling fakes or
objects that had been stolen or exported illegally from their
country of origin,'' True wrote in the 19- page memo, a copy of
which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Negotiations

She wrote the statement to clarify and add to comments she made in
earlier questioning by prosecutors, one of her lawyers, Francesca
Coppi, said.

Judges in the case will base their ruling both on written evidence
submitted to the court and verbal testimony of witnesses. A
transcript of her earlier questioning, conducted in Los Angeles, is
already in evidence.

True hasn't testified in the Rome court and isn't required to be
present at the trial, which started a year ago and which she has
attended once.

Her statement, which casts True and the Getty as reformers in a
corrupt market, comes as the Getty negotiates with Italy over
government demands that the museum return some of the 52 disputed
antiquities in its collection.

True, who was antiquities curator from 1986 through 2005, said in
her statement that when she took the job she helped draft a memo to
the Getty board to explore whether it was possible to continue to
collect antiquities in a tainted market.

``The memorandum pointed out that the antiquities market was
probably the most corrupt of the art markets,'' she wrote in her
statement to the Rome Tribunal.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Silver in Rome at
vtsilver@...

Last Updated: November 10, 2006 11:27 EST
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