Collector Returns Art Italy Says Was Looted
After 18 months of intense negotiations, the New York philanthropist Shelby White has ceded 10 classical antiquities from her private collection that Italy contends were looted from its soil, the Italian culture minister confirmed this week.
Nine of the 10 ancient Greek and Etruscan objects were delivered on Wednesday to the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue and will soon be crated and shipped to Italy, the minister, Francesco Rutelli, said in an interview in Rome. The remaining piece, a rare fifth-century B.C. Greek vessel, will go to Italy in 2010.
Mr. Rutelli said that Ms. White’s decision was “extraordinarily positive” as well as groundbreaking. “It is a generous and open-minded gesture,” he said.
Although Italy has successfully brokered accords for the return of artifacts over the last few years from American museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, he said the arrangement with Ms. White was its first negotiated pact with a private collector in the United States. Unlike the museums, which will receive long-term art loans under the agreements, Ms. White will receive nothing other than Italy’s thanks in return.
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Nine of the 10 ancient Greek and Etruscan objects were delivered on Wednesday to the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue and will soon be crated and shipped to Italy, the minister, Francesco Rutelli, said in an interview in Rome. The remaining piece, a rare fifth-century B.C. Greek vessel, will go to Italy in 2010.
Mr. Rutelli said that Ms. White’s decision was “extraordinarily positive” as well as groundbreaking. “It is a generous and open-minded gesture,” he said.
Although Italy has successfully brokered accords for the return of artifacts over the last few years from American museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, he said the arrangement with Ms. White was its first negotiated pact with a private collector in the United States. Unlike the museums, which will receive long-term art loans under the agreements, Ms. White will receive nothing other than Italy’s thanks in return.