Hot pots and potshots

More contentious than contrite, Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, convened an hour-long briefing for a small group of journalists upon his return from Italy in late February to discuss his much publicized 40-year antiquities agreement with the Italian Culture Ministry [see "Front Page" Mar. '06]. He began by defending the Met's current acquisition policies for antiquities, and ended by taking potshots at journalists and archeologists who have criticized the museum for past purchases of objects of uncertain provenance. Some of those objects, as indicated by evidence presented to de Montebello by Italian authorities, were probably looted and illegally exported.

Countering archeologists' assertions that museums encourage illicit traffic by acquiring possible plunder, de Montebello observed that American museums' share of the antiquities market today "is, frankly, negligible" and therefore has little impact on looting. He scolded the press for having "swallowed hook, line and sinker ... the lines of the archeologists, who have their own agendas." And he derided the notion that "an object without its findspot is useless, is meaningless. Until the early 20th century, for two millennia, every single antiquity was taken out of the ground without a certificate from a licensed archeologist. And 98 percent of what we know of the ancient world, we know from objects that were not [scientifically] excavated.... There isn't a single object in [the antiquities collection of] the Vatican that hasn't been plundered, by today's laws" he asserted.

Whatever his views on repatriating unprovenanced antiquities, de Montebello managed to get the Met off the prosecutorial hook through skillful negotiation. In exchange for the Met's agreement to return 21 objects that Italy says were looted from its soil, the Italian Culture Ministry not only offered long-term loans of similarly important objects, but waived its right "to pursue or support any legal action against the Museum or its staff and officers" in relation to the returned objects. Any future Italian claims are to be resolved "with the same spirit of loyal collaboration that inspired the present agreement"

Less fortunate was Marion True, former antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum, now on trial in Italy for trafficking in looted objects. In January, Michael Brand, the Getty's new director, opened discussions with Italy, which continue at this writing. A senior Getty official, requesting anonymity, hoped these negotiations would have a "positive impact" on True's legal woes, in addition to resolving the ownership status of disputed objects now in the Getty's possession. The Getty had publicly announced in 1995 that it would "acquire only antiquities with a well-documented provenance" But the next year, it accessioned the largely unprovenanced Greek and Roman antiquities collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman, which now figures in Italy's repatriation campaign, along with other items of ancient art.

"I'm sure that my colleagues are viewing [the Met's] agreement as a wonderful opening for them to be able to cut the same deals with the Italian ministry" de Montebello told the assembled journalists. He might have been alluding not only to the Getty but also to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which, even as he spoke, was anticipating a visit from the Italian police.

De Montebello agreed to give back the objects after being shown evidence from a 1995 raid on warehouses in Geneva containing materials belonging to Giacomo Medici, an Italian dealer now appealing a 2004 conviction for trafficking in looted antiquities. The Met's director regards that evidence as "to a large extent ... circumstantial. But when you put a lot of the circumstantial evidence together ... it seems to favor the Italian case"

The most famous object to be returned is the Euphronios calyx krater, ca. 515 B.C.--controversial from the moment it was purchased in 1972 by then director Thomas Hoving from dealer Robert Hecht (now standing trial in Italy with True). The krater will stay at the Met until 2008 and may afterward be loaned back for occasional display in the museum's new Greek and Roman galleries, set to open in 2007. The agreement lists 12 Italian-owned objects from which four-year loans may be drawn, to compensate the Met for returning the krater.

Regularly returning on loan will be 16 pieces of 3rdcentury B.C. Hellenistic silver, the so-called Morgantina treasure, which the Met acquired in the '80s, also from Hecht. The museum will build a special treasury for the silver, where it will be displayed until 2010. The pieces will then be shipped to Italy, but will return to the Met every four years, on rotation with other "archaeological assets of equal beauty and artistic and historic significance" according to the agreement. The Met may receive from Italy additional loans of antiquities that it will restore, and it may be allowed to borrow archeological material discovered during excavations financed by the museum.

De Montebello said that the Italian tempest would not shake the Met's current acquisitions policy, which conforms to guidelines issued in 2004 by the Association of Art Museum Directors. They call for rigorous investigation of the history of prospective acquisitions, but do not preclude collecting antiquities with uncertain provenances. Museum purchases of such works, de Montebello said, allow them to be displayed, published and exhibited "with the very clear notion that were there to be a legitimate claim, the museum would take responsible action."

Following AAMD's 2004 recommendations, the Met will not acquire ancient art unless it is "known to have been out of the country of origin for 10 years," de Montebello stated. It will "publish all acquisitions of antiquities in printed form and electronically, including the provenance, both for the benefit of scholars and for claimant nations, so that they might find them" The Met also intends to abide by new AAMD guidelines released in late February, which extend 2004 recommendations to objects borrowed from public and private collections. The Met would not have borrowed certain objects from its trustee and major benefactor, collector Shelby White, had those guidelines been in effect, de Montebello conceded. He added that he was trying to facilitate negotiations between White and Italy, which claims that several objects in her collection (including one on display at the Met) were illegally removed.

Certain provisions in the new AAMD guidelines on borrowing could easily convince some previously generous collectors to confine their antiquities to their own premises: Lenders may be asked to provide "an appropriate warranty of their legal ownership" of works that they loan to AAMD members. What's more, museums are encouraged to warn lenders that they may never get their property back if the objects are subject to "third-party claims" With museum antiquities acquisitions already reduced to a trickle, this could well tighten the spigot on future loans.

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