Talks on Disputed Art Between Met Director, Italian Officials Described as ‘Constructive’

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The New York Sun

The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art met for several hours yesterday with Italian cultural officials in talks regarding disputed pieces in the museum’s collection. Though no agreement was reached, both parties characterized the discussion as “constructive,” and the Italian cultural minister, Rocco Buttiglione, hinted the two sides were close.

A spokesman for the Met, Harold Holzer, said in a statement that the meeting “could pave the way to a mutually satisfactory arrangement” between Italy and the museum. He later told The New York Sun that there would be future talks involving the Met’s director, Philippe de Montebello, but gave no timetable for when they might occur.

But Mr. Buttiglione, told Bloomberg News in Rome that the museum was prepared to return several items, including the prized Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year-old Greek vase that is considered one of the Met’s top antiquities. The minister said to the news service that “there seems to be a conceptual basis” for an agreement between Italy and the Met. “If we have conclusive evidence, and we think we have, then they are prepared to give it back,” Mr. Buttiglione told Bloomberg.

Told of Mr. Buttiglione’s remarks, Mr. Holzer said: “We’re not prepared to suggest that an agreement has been reached.” Mr. Buttiglione and Mr. de Montebello met privately for about 15 minutes. Mr. Holzer declined to discuss specifics of the meeting, however, including any offers or proposals that were made.

Mr. de Montebello will report back to the museum’s board of trustees on the substance of the meeting. Mr. Holzer would not speculate on what the Met might do, but he pointed to past instances when the museum – often on its own initiation – had returned items to their countries of origin based on evidence of disputed provenance.

“We’re not talking about an intractable and irresponsible resistance to legitimate clients,” Mr. Holzer said. “We have a very good history of integrity, good faith, and scholarship on this issue.” He said the museum had in recent years returned pieces to Cambodia, India, and Egypt, based on its own research and findings.

The talks had been spurred by Italy’s insistence that as many as 30 pieces from the Met, and dozens more at other museums, were taken illegally. Italian officials say they have amassed piles of evidence to prove this, including Polaroid photographs obtained during their investigation of Giacomo Medici, an Italian art dealer convicted last year of trafficking in looted art.

Evidence from the Medici investigation is currently being used in the Rome trial of two art dealers, Robert Hecht Jr. and the former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Marion True, who are accused of conspiring to sell stolen art. Mr. Hecht is the dealer who sold the Euphronios krater to the Met.


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