CA: Getty Curator on Trial for Acquiring Stolen Antiquities

LA Times a paper hardly read... ^ | 7/18/05 | Tracy Wilkinson

[BurbankKarl]

ROME -- In a case with broad implications for the art world, the trial of a senior curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum who is accused of illegally acquiring antiquities opened today in Rome, and was almost immediately suspended to await translation of key documents into English.

The prosecution of Marion True, the Getty's curator for antiquities and director of the Getty Villa, will resume Nov. 16, a three judge panel decided.

True, 56, is accused of criminal conspiracy to receive stolen goods and illicit receipt of archeological items purportedly dug up in Italy. The case involves 42 allegedly looted objects and is more than 10 years in the making.

Through an attorney, True has asserted her innocence, and the museum has backed her up.

The small courtroom at the tribunal in Rome was unusually crowded this morning as the much-anticipated hearing opened: two prosecutors, about a dozen defense attorneys and more journalists than the place typically sees in a week. Not present were True and her co-defendant, art dealer Emanuele Robert Hecht. They were not expected because the day's proceedings were dedicated to technical matters.

[Rodney King]

Italian authorities hope the unusual prosecution of True and others will set an example for what they say is a vast network of grave robbers, smugglers, dealers and complicit curators who for decades have plundered the antiquity-rich countryside of Italy and other Mediterranean nations

What it will do is stop the excavation of these goods in the first place, meaning they will be lost to history. This may or may not be a bad thing, but its not the case that these items will end up in an Italian museum if only other museums didn't buy them.

[BenLurkin]

Getty ping

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1491102/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Joe 6-pack]