Getty, Italian Museum Announce Collaboration

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles announced Monday a new collaboration with the Archaeology Museum in Florence, Italy, to bring artifacts from the Italian museum to museum-goers in California. Its first loan, “The Chimera of Arezzo,” an Etruscan bronze, will be at the center of an exhibit at the Getty Villa in Malibu starting in July.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times’ Culture Monster, Getty director Michael Brand said the new partnership is the “silver lining” of the long dispute between the museum and the Italian government over looted antiquities the Getty (and other major museums) had in its collection. Thirty-nine pieces of art have been returned to Italy from the Getty, and another — a marble and limestone Aphrodite — will be returned late next year. A former Getty curator, Marion True, remains on trial in Italy for illegal art trafficking.

Last year, Jeffrey Brown reported from Rome about an exhibit called “Nostoi,” a Greek word meaning “return home,” which included works from the Getty: