[CPProt.net] Italy Welcomes Return of Three Artifacts

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Italy Welcomes Return of Three Artifacts 
By VOA News 
11 November 2005

Italy's Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione has welcomed the return of three
disputed artifacts that had been in the possession of a California museum.

Mr. Buttiglione made the comment in Rome on Friday as the items -- an
ancient bowl, a bronze candelabrum and a funeral stone -- were presented to
the media.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles returned the items without admitting
guilt.  It has another 39 archeological treasures that Italy says are
Italian property.  

Italian authorities have charged the Getty museum's former antiquities
curator, Marion True, with receiving stolen antiquities from art dealer
Robert Hecht.  Their trial resumes next week in Rome.

Italy is also seeking other allegedly looted treasures that are in the
possession of U.S. museums, including an ancient Greek bowl from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.