Blog'Art

By Michael Muskal, The LA Times

Times Staff Writer

9:27 AM PDT, July 10, 2006

After months of official and media examination of its collection of Greek and Roman art, the J. Paul Getty Trust has agreed to return two ancient works to Greece, it was announced today.

The announcement was issued this morning by the Getty trustees and the Greek Culture Ministry. The parties also agreed to hold talks about two additional works that Greece claims were illegally taken out of the country.

The two works to be returned are a sixth century B.C. Thasian marble relief showing women making an offering to a goddess and a fourth century B.C. carved tombstone from the Boeotian region of ancient Greece. The relief was stolen from a storeroom and the tombstone was illegally excavated, according to Greek officials.

Both works are on display at the Getty Villa in Malibu.

No date for the return was given.

The unanimous decision by the Getty board to return the works stems from a mid-May agreement between Greece Culture Minister Georgios A. Voulgarakis and Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, according to the joint statement.

"The decision to return the items to the Hellenic Republic was based on an internal scholarly review by the J. Paul Getty Museum that concluded it was appropriate that the objects be returned," the statement said.

The parties also agreed to talks about two other works, a sixth century B.C. marble statue of a young woman and a fourth century B.C. gold funeral wreath. They will also discuss long-term loans of Greek antiquities to the Getty Museum.

In recent years, authorities in Greece and Italy have stepped up their efforts to reclaim looted antiquities, many of which have ended up in museums and private collections throughout the world.

"This is just the beginning," Voulgarakis said in Athens. "I believe that in the future we will have very good results concerning other antiquities whose return we are seeking."

Last month, the Getty said a tentative agreement was reached in negotiations with Italian authorities over allegedly illegally obtained antiquities. Italy has been negotiating for the return of dozens of artifacts.

http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/la-071006getty,0,1042927.story?coll=cl-art-features