[CPProt.net] Getty museum curator turned 'blind eye to art theft'

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Getty museum curator turned 'blind eye to art theft' 
By Bruce Johnston, in Rome 
(Filed: 19/07/2005)

A senior curator of the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was put on trial
in Rome yesterday charged with receiving stolen artefacts.

Marion True, the curator of antiquities, is alleged to have knowingly
obtained 40 archaeological finds illegally excavated by tomb raiders or
stolen in Italy. She is charged with criminal association, receiving stolen
Italian artefacts and laundering artworks purchased privately and sold to
the Getty using allegedly bogus documents. True, 56, who faces up to 10
years in prison if convicted, denies the charges, which relate to a period
from the mid-1980s until 1998.

The case is seen as an attempt to put pressure on international collectors
to verify the origin of their artefacts. Experts believe the global market
in stolen antiquities generates billions of pounds a year. "Museums must
learn you can't turn a blind eye to art theft,'' a prosecution team member
said. The trial was adjourned until November 16. Italy's arts ministry has
filed for civil damages in the case.