送交者: 田牛 于 2005-11-16, 11:12:38:
Trial resumes for ex-curator of LA's Getty museum
AIDAN LEWIS
Associated Press
ROME - A trial widely seen as an Italian warning to the art world resumed on Wednesday in Rome, with a former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles accused of receiving stolen antiquities and conspiring to traffic illegally acquired artifacts.
Marion True, who resigned last month as the museum's antiquities curator, could receive a prison sentence of up to five years if convicted of the conspiracy charge, and up to eight years if found guilty of the stolen property charge.
The case against her involves about 40 artifacts acquired by the Getty museum between 1986 and the late 1990s - including bronze Etruscan pieces, frescoes and painted Greek vessels.
Fellow American and co-defendant Robert Hecht, an 86-year-old art dealer, is accused of the same charges.
Both defendants have denied wrongdoing, and the Getty has stood by True's work.
True sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom and occasionally whispered to defense lawyers. She recently added to her team one of Italy's top criminal trial lawyers, Franco Coppi, who a few years ago successfully defended former Premier Giulio Andreotti against charges of Mafia association.
The trial by a panel of three judges was suspended in July for four months because notification of the trial to the defendants had not been translated into English.
Wednesday's session was expected to be taken up largely by procedural matters, Prosecutor Paolo Ferri said.
In one of the first matters, Judge Gustavo Barbarinaldo agreed to a request by True's lawyers to bar TV cameras from the courtroom. He cited reasons of privacy.
Hecht's lawyer, Alessandro Vannucci, said he had advised his client not to come to Italy for Wednesday's session. Defendants in Italy are not required to attend.
"I'm asking for the conviction of Marion True because I believe her deeds were criminal and not just negligent," Ferri said in a brief interview while waiting for the session to start.
Italian authorities are hoping the prosecution will help Italy recover antiquities it contends were illegally dug up or exported.
"Carelessness or criminal deeds that have been committed in the past will not be repeated in the future," Ferri said, laying out his vision of what the trial's legacy could be.
Last week, a member of Italy's paramilitary police art squad returned from a successful mission in Los Angeles to bring back three ancient pieces from the Getty's collection.
"It's a spontaneous move and we're grateful," said Gen. Ugo Zottin, the squad's commander, of the Getty "donation." "But that does not compromise the restitution of everything that belongs to Italy," he said.
The trial grew out of an investigation of Italian art dealer Giacomo Medici, who was convicted in Rome last year and sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy in international trafficking in antiquities.
A 1939 Italian law states that any ancient artifact that turns up in a dig belongs to the state and that no antiquities excavated after that date can leave the nation's borders, except on loan.
Vannucci said the prosecution would have to prove that objects had been smuggled out of Italy after that date. Experts say that is very hard to do, especially in the case of clandestine digs.
The trial indictment alleges that True, 57, was knowingly involved in dealings of antiquities that were stolen or came from clandestine excavations.
Some of the antiquities covered in the case were allegedly dug up by thieves who specialize in robbing ancient Etruscan tombs or Roman ruins.
Treasures were allegedly sold by art dealers in Switzerland to prestigious museums in the United States and in Europe.
Prosecutors allege that Hecht, working in Paris, acted as an intermediary.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/13181555.htm