Italy’s Culture Minister: Getty’s Case “Crumbling” Like So Much Fake Art

A bit of an update on the story I wrote about recently about the feud between the Getty Museum in LA and Italy’s Culture Minister – the Culture Minister says the Getty’s case for hanging onto the works Italy alleges were taken out of the country illegally isn’t faring nearly as well as the ancient artifacts at the center of the argument. “Their case is crumbling because it just doesn’t stand up.” I’d say he’s a little biased, as the guy who wants to get the art back in Italy, but that’s just a guess.

Italy’s art police (Carabinieri) have said the pieces in question left the country illegally, and apparently now “media probes” have come up with the same results. Over the last five years, “the police’s heritage protection unit has recovered 100,000 stolen works of art and 350,000 looted artifacts, as well as impounding 175,000 fakes.” This explains why the husband was able to get away with a bit of speeding on Italy’s highways last year – the police are otherwise occupied.