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Getty Antiquities

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by Callen Bair and Felix Salmon
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Sep 25 2007 12:00am EDT

Getty Antiquities

Lately, there have been a number of patrons / countries bent on repatriating works of art they claim as national treasures.

There's no greater cultural patriot than Italy, which has been successfully waging a war against major museums worldwide to bring home antiquities it says have been unjustly taken from Italian soil, and the country put the final touches on a major victory today: It officially signed an agreement with the J. Paul Getty Museum that will send 40 of the museum's ancient objects, including a prized statue of Aphrodite, back to the boot. In return, the Italians have said they'll drop civil charges levied against Marion True, the Getty's former antiquities curator. (She still faces criminal charges.)

39 of the artifacts go back by the end of the year, but the Aphrodite will stick around until 2010. Operating on the principle of "all publicity is good publicity " (see Christoph Büchel), it's a good bet that more people will be headed to the Getty to see these works between now and then than would have otherwise.

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