[CPProt.net] Ancient vase to be returned if stolen. Toledo Museum cooperating with authorities

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Article published November 10, 2005

Ancient vase to be returned if stolen
Museum cooperating with authorities


By RHONDA B. SEWELL
BLADE STAFF WRITER


Toledo Museum of Art leaders pledged to return to Italy an ancient
Greek/Etruscan water jar if the black and gold earthenware vase is one of
more than 100 looted antiquities identified by Italian police.


Holly Taylor, spokesman for the museum, said the vase, called a "kalpis,"
was first acquired from a private dealer in 1982. It is a little more than
20 inches high and dates to 520-510 B.C.

The vase was bought by the museum with funds from the Libbey Endowment under
the watch of then-Director Roger Mandle and the late Curator Kurt T.
Luckner, the museum's curator of ancient art from 1969 to 1995.

A Los Angeles Times article Tuesday reported that Italian court records
contain a trove of photographs seized during a 1995 raid, tracing looted
objects - including the vase - to several prominent United States museums:
the Toledo museum, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Princeton University Art
Museum, and Los Angeles' J. Paul Getty Museum.

If the vase was stolen, it will be returned, Toledo museum Director Don
Bacigalupi said in a prepared statement. "We are not interested in holding
in our collections works of art that have legitimate claim elsewhere," he
said.

The photographs were acquired during a raid on the warehouse of antiquities
dealer Giacomo Medici, the Times' said. A trial planned for later this month
also names Mr. Medici's two co-defendants, American art dealer Robert Hecht,
Jr., and former J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities Curator Marion True.

Ms. Taylor declined to name the Toledo museum vase's dealer, but said it was
not anyone named in the Times' article. She also declined to say how much
the museum paid for the piece.

In March, 2001, museum officials, under the watch of then-Director Roger
Berkowitz, received a request from Toledo's U.S. Attorney's Office for
copies of documentation of the vase, which is detailed with exotic half-man,
half-dolphin creatures.

Ms. Taylor said the museum provided the requested information a month later.
"Since that date, there's been no further inquiries from the court from this
matter. We've never been contacted from the Italian government or
authorities for this vase," she said

Ms. Taylor said the museum will comply fully with authorities if contacted.
"If we get a claim against this vase, or if any of our works were looted
works, we would return them," said Ms. Taylor, adding that the kalpis will
remain on display in the Classic Court section of the museum until further
notice.

Contact Rhonda B. Sewell at:
rsewell at theblade.com
or 419-724-6101.

http://toledoblade.com/