Further returns to Italy from the MMA

Formerly New York MMA 1991.11.6.1–2.
Source: MMA

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned another batch of Greek and Roman antiquities as a result of investigations by the Manhattan DA into objects handled by Frieda Tchacos, Gianfranco Becchina, and Fritz Bürki [see Manhattan DA press release].

Only one piece is highlighted in the press release, a fragmentary Sicilian terracotta relief:

Two additional adjoining fragments of the votive relief were found in the archaeological excavations of the temple of Demeter Malophoros at Selinunte, Sicily, less than ten miles from Becchina’s hometown. Those fragments remain in the Palermo Museum.

This is linked to the Becchina investigation. The relief had formed part of the Norbert Schimmel collection. One other Schimmel piece is among the repatriated objects, a bronze handle attachment in the form of a mask. Other Schimmel items appeared in earlier returns.

The two Bürki linked pieces were objects presented by Dietrich von Bothmer, an Attic bilingual cup attributed to near Psiax, and a fragmentary cup attributed to Epiktetos.

The Tchacos pieces include a pair of spherical Greek gold earrings, a pair of Roman silver cups —one carries a weight inscription for the pair — and an inscribed lid of a Roman cinerarium (Sextus Flavius Pencarpus). There is also a forged Roman funerary inscription.

These latest returns have implications for other material. A batch of material from Selinunte is discussed in my Artwashing the Past (2025) [chapter 11]. The Tchacos investigation will lead to the numerous fragments acquired by other museums (as well as the nearly 300 fragments in the Bothmer collection: and these are just the ones identified in the sample).

I am grateful to Jason Felch for drawing my attention to one of the Schimmel pieces.

Italy Seeks Return of Antiquities from the Louvre

Amphora attributed to the Berlin painter.
Source: The Louvre

The Italian authorities are seeking the return of seven antiquities from the Louvre (Roxana Azimi, "Italy calls on the Louvre to return seven of its archaeological objects", Le Monde July 13, 2023). The report draws attention to the Attic red-figured amphora that once formed part of the Hunt Collection (Wealth of the Ancient World no. 10). A further fragment from the amphora was supplied by Dietrich von Bothmer, and Robert Guy identified another piece that was presented to the Louvre in 1995 in honour of François Villard (Berlin Painter cat. no. 13; no. BN5; BAPD 8798). It should be noted that pots (and fragments) attributed to the Berlin painter have featured frequently in the returns to Italy. The identification of the Berlin painter amphora was made by Christos Tsirogiannis in 2006.

What are the other pieces likely to be? We know that the items were acquired between 1982 and 1998.

Possible candidates include:

a. Sicilian bell-krater attributed to the Lentini-Manfria group (CA 7249). Acq. Fritz Bürki (1986).

b. Capuan bell-krater attributed to the Ixion painter (CA 7124). Purchase (1985).

c. Attic black-figured psykter-krater attributed to the manner of the Antimenes painter (MNE 938) (BAPD 26150). Purchase (1988).

The Attic and the Capuan kraters (b–c) have been identified from the Becchina archive. The identifications were  made by Daniela Rizzo and Maurizio Pellegrini.

• Rizzo, D., and M. Pellegrini. 2021. "The Italian Archaeological Heritage Abroad: Between Agreements, Debates and Indifference." In Stolen Heritage: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Heritage in the EU and the MENA Region, edited by A. Traviglia, L. Milano, C. Tonghini, and R. Giovanelli, Antichistica, vol. 29: 99–114. Venezia: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari.

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Selinous at the Getty

Lex Sacra from Selinous

My next column for 'Context Matters' has appeared in the Journal of Art Crime vol. 23 (Spring 2020). It reviews the range of material from Selinous on Sicily that was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum. One text, acquired from Dr Max Gerchik, has been returned to Italy. Previous publications accepted that some of the objects were derived from "clandestine operations most probably at Selinous".

Other pieces include stelai, architectural elements, as well as other hexametric texts.

Gerchik's other donations to the Getty are considered including material from Italy that appears to have passed through Switzerland.

At least one of the Selinous pieces, a lionhead spout, passed through the Summa Galleries.

For some of the texts:
Faraone, C. A., and D. Obbink. Editors. 2013. The Getty hexameters: poetry, magic, and mystery in ancient Selinous. (Oxford).

Intellectual consequences of the Attic red-figured lekythos

Attic red-figured lekythos
Source: New York County District Attorney

The Attic red-figured lekythos that has been seized from a Manhattan gallery is attributed to the group of Palermo 16. Find-spots (and the Beazley Archive now defines this information as "provenance") for such lekythoi include (and this may include "said to be" information):

• Nola: 2
• Tarquinia: 1
• Camarina, Sicily: 1
• Gela, Sicily: 5
• Selinus, Sicily: 3

11 further lekythoi do not have a stated findspot. It seems quite possible that the New York lekythos was found at a site on Sicily but we just do not know.

And note the loss of information: 11 out of 23 lekythoi do not have a secure archaeological find-spot. And how many of the 12 with some sort of reported find-spot come from a scientific excavation that has provided contextual information?

Ny Carlsberg returns: the pottery

Here are details of some of the pottery from the Ny Carlsberg returns:

• IN 3417. Messapian trozella (nestoris). Acquired 1970 from the Art Market. Find-spot: Monte Salete (Grottaglie) in Apulia. CVA 1, pl. 105-106, no. 82.
• IN 3419. East Greek alabastron in the form of a sandalled foot. Acquired 1970. Allegedly found at Gela (Sicily). CVA 1, pl. 129, no. 123.
• IN 3444. East Greek alabastron in the form of a helmeted head. Acquired 1972. CVA 1, pl 127, no. 115.
• IN 3445. East Greek alabastron in the form of the head of an eagle. Acquired 1973. CVA 1, pl. 131, no. 129.
• IN 3498. East Greek alabastron in the form of a left leg. Acquired 1974. CVA 1, pl. 130, no. 122.
• IN 3606. Attic Panathenaic amphora, attributed to the Robinson group. Acquired 1980 on the art market. CVA 1, pls. 45-48, no. 28.

Sicily: Culture and Conquest

© David Gill

The British Museum is currently showing a temporary exhibition, 'Sicily: Culture and Conquest'.

The accompanying catalogue by Dirk Booms and Peter Higgs (British Museum Press, 2016) does contain illustration and discussion of some material returned to Sicily. The pieces include:

• The Morgantina Treasure, returned from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (p. 24, fig. 7; p. 124, fig. 91). This had been acquired through Robert Hecht (and prior 'history'). 'The hoard was found by illicit treasure hunters in the 1970s in two pits beneath the floor of a house' (p. 124).
• The pair of Acrolithic statues, returned from the University of Virginia Art Museum at Charlottesville where they had been on loan from the Maurice Tempelsman collection (p. p. 68, fig. 49). They had previously been handled by Robin Symes. 'Thought to have been illicitly dug up in Building A in the sanctuary at San Francesco Bisconiti (sic.), the statues are likely to represent Demeter and Persephone' (p. 68).
• The 'Aphrodite' from Morgantina, returned from the J. Paul Getty Museum (p. 69, fig. 50)
• The Hades, returned from the J. Paul Getty Museum (p. 70, fig. 51). This had been acquired through Robin Symes and had formed part of the Tempelsman collection. 'reputedly discovered in the sanctuary at San Francesco Bisconti' (p. 71).

Morgantina Treasure. Source: MMA

Hades. Source: J. Paul Getty Museum

Acrolithic heads. Source: BBC

It is surprising that there is no mention of Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino's Chasing Aphrodite, or Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini's The Medici Conspiracy (or journal literature) that address some of the concerns relating to this Sicilian material. There does not appear to be reference to Dietrich von Bothmer's full publication of the silver hoard.

Head of Hades returns to Italy / La Testa Barbablù - RAINEWS

Terracotta Head of Hades to Return to Sicily

Head of Hades
Source: MiBACT 

Three years ago I reported that the J. Paul Getty Museum would be returning a terracotta head of Hades to Italy. It appears to be derived from a sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone ("the decision to transfer this head is based on the discovery of four terracotta fragments found near Morgantina in Sicily, similar in style and medium to the Getty head").

The head will be handed over to the Italian authoroties in Los Angeles tomorrow (Friday, January 29, 2016) [press release]. It will then be displayed in the museum at Aidone next to the 'Aphrodite' from Morgantina (announced in 2007; returned in 2011).

The Getty has yet to issue a press statement, but for convenience here is the one from 2013.

The head itself had surfaced on the market via Robin Symes and had then formed part of the Maurice Tempelsman collection. (For the acquisition of the collection and Arthur Houghton's view, see here.)

Is this the time for the Getty to be releasing the full collecting history of other Tempelsman material?

And what about the 'Cleveland Victoria' in the Cleveland Museum of Art?

The ex-Steinhardt Phiale

I have been looking at the catalogue for Sicily: Art and Invention Between Greece and Rome (Los Angeles, 2013). It includes, as I have noted elsewhere, the ex-Steinhardt gold phiale. The catalogue gives little away: 'From near Caltavuturo' and 'the phiale of Caltavuturo'. There is no mention of the fact that the phiale was seized in November 1995 and returned to Italy in 2000.

The catalogue apparently seems unaware of Michael Vickers and David Gill, Artful Crafts: Ancient Greek Silverware and Pottery (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). The authors of the catalogue would have found a discussion of the weights of gold phialai (p. 43) that would have been relevant to the inscription. A comparable piece is the gold phiale in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art apparently purchased from Robert Hecht.

Also missing in the catalogue entry are the references to the publication of the phiale in SEG 39 (1989) 1034 and by Giacomo Manganaro.

Excavated archaeological material and exhibition loans

The Motya Charioteer displayed in the Duveen Gallery,
British Museum
© David Gill

The Sicily exhibition moving from the J. Paul Getty Museum to the Cleveland Museum of Art reminds us of some of the issues relating to recently surfaced material. The display includes excavated material such as the charioteer found on the island of Motya (Mozia), western Sicily. Such finds, with known contexts and find-spots, help us to the reconstruct the cultural history of the island. Yet their display alongside recently-surfaced material which lack known find-spots (and usually collecting histories) gives endorsement to the unrestrained acquisition of antiquities that has led to the scandal of the so-called 'Medici Conspiracy'. What were the find-spots and the archaeological contexts of the material on loan from the Getty? In the case of the terracotta Hades we do not need to guess.

North American museums are encouraging the loan of archaeological material from Italian and Sicilian collections in return for co-operation in handing back material identified from Polaroids. But should such material be displayed alongside objects that have a less than clear history? What efforts have been made to provide full collecting histories? Would the Getty-Cleveland exhibition have been stronger if it had been formed with material solely from Italian and Sicilian collections?

On a related note, it is perhaps ironic that the Motya charioteer was displayed at the British Museum alongside the sculptures from the Parthenon.

Cleveland and Sicily

Exhibition at Cleveland Museum of Art

In April this year LM pointed out that the image being used for the upcoming Sicily exhibition had been donated to the Getty by an individual linked to antiquities that had been returned to Italy. Where did Dr Max Gerchik acquired this head?

Other finds in the show include the ex-Steinhardt gold phiale, as well as the Morgantina silver, and the head of Hades that had been handled by Robin Symes.

It now appears that the authorities in Sicily are unhappy about the exhibition and concerns have been raised (and reported in the New York Times, Hugh Eakin, "Sicilian Protest Imperils Exhibition", June 21, 2013). It has been suggested that the stunning charioteer from Motya as well as the gold phiale should be withdrawn from the show.

This controversy is a reminder that North American museums continue to hold onto antiquities that surfaced subsequent to the 1970 UNESCO Convention.

Lee Rizzuto and the Getty

Among the objects to be appearing in the forthcoming exhibition exploring ancient Sicily at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art is a terracotta given by Lee Rizzuto in 1979 (no. 119; inv. 79.AD.37).

In the same year Rizzuto gave a silver and gold bracelet that apparently came from Turkey (inv. 79.AM.36), a steatite goblet apparently from Turkey (inv. 79.AJ.51), an Anatolian pot with Geometric decoration (inv. 79.AJ.53), pots with Geometric decoration (inv. 79.AJ.49, 79.AJ.50), a silver beaker possibly from Iran (inv. 79.AJ.47), a Syro-hittite bronze statuette (inv. 79.AJ.44), a basalt half-figure (inv. 79.AJ.43), two steatite lamps apparently from Syria (inv. 79.AJ.45, 79.AJ.46), a bronze warrior possibly from Argos, Greece (inv. 79.AB.38), a Byzantine censer (inv. 79.AC.48),  and a series of Roman fresco fragments, some with a sphinx (inv. 79.AG.39, 79.AG.40, 79.AG.41.1, 79.AG.41.2, 79.AG.41.3, 79.AG.41.4, 79.AG.41.5, 79.AG.42).

What are the full collecting histories of these pieces? How were they acquired by Rizzuto?

Max Gerchik and Sicily

The image chosen to publicise the upcoming exhibition, "Sicily: Art and Invention Between Greece and Rome", at the Cleveland Museum of Art from September 2013 is a Sicilian terracotta head given to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1976. The Getty has issued a checklist of the exhibits that includes items returned from North American collections to Italy.

We know that Dr Max Gerchik was the donor of at least one item that was returned to Italy. We also know that he was the donor of several inscribed lead plaques that were allegedly found at Selinus on Sicily.

Both the Cleveland Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum have had to return objects to Italy. Both museums will want to avoid any further controversial decisions.

So when did Gerchik acquire this "Head of a Goddess"? Did he acquire it on the Beverly Hills market? For how long did it reside in his collection? Was the head from an "old Swiss collection"? What is the full collecting history of this piece?

The ex-Steinhardt phiale from Sicily

Earlier this week I noted the forthcoming exhibition of antiquities from Sicily that will open at the J. Paul Getty Museum this summer. Part of the Morgantina silver hoard will be on display (after its return from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art). I am grateful to Fabio Isman for drawing my eye to another important piece in the exhibition: the gold phiale apparently found near Caltavuturo (no. 89).

The story of the phiale is well documented (and see images). It was seized from Michael Steinhardt and returned to Italy.

From Gela to Malibu

I am undertaking some research on material from Sicily. I noticed that the gorgon antefix acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1972 (inv. 1972.AD.124) has no stated donor. Birgitta Wohl, who published the antefix in 1977 [JSTOR], noted that there were two other antefixes "from the same mold" that had surfaced on the Swiss market (Galerie Heidi Vollmoeller) in 1975.

Did all three antefixes surface together? What was the "collecting history" of the Getty antefix? Where were they originally displayed? Was the building in Gela?

Sicilian antiquities in the Getty

Lex sacra from Selinus

I have been reviewing some of the early returns from North American museums to Italy. One that featured in the Nostoi exhibition (no. 39) was a Greek text on lead sheets now displayed in the Museo Civico in Castelvetrano in Sicily. The text is a lex sacra linked to cults at the Greek colony of Selinus in south-western Sicily.

The lead sheet was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1981, deaccessioned in 1991, and returned to Italy in 1992. Shortly afterwards the text was published by M.H. Jameson, D.R. Jordan and R.D. Kotansky in A Lex Sacra from Selinous (Greek, Roman and Byzantine monographs 11; Duke University, 1993). John Walsh explained that as "the Getty Museum does not exhibit material of primarily historical interest, we concluded that the piece would be better returned to Italy". Walsh also affirmed the "importance" of the inscription "for further study and interpretation of the site of ancient Selinous".

Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino mention the return (Chasing Aphrodite, 118-19):

The Lex Sacra ... was inscribed with instructions for a religious ritual and had been traced to a sanctuary of Demeter near ... Selinunte. Despite the tablet's historical significance, the Getty had never taken it out of storage because it was not deemed beautiful enough for public display. Now, without any prompting, the cirator was willing to give it back.

They place the return in the wake of the October 1991 Rome conference where recently surfaced antiquities were discussed.

Detail from bell-krater

This is not the only inscription on a lead plaque linked to Selinus and acquired by the Getty. "The Getty Hexameters" tablet was also acquired in 1981 as a gift from Dr Max Gerchik (inv. 81.AI.140.2). (The inscription was first loaned in 1980.) The Getty catalogue suggests that it was derived from Selinus. This is one of several lead plaques acquired from Gerchik in 1981 with a Selinus link.

It is of more than passing interest that Max Gerchik was the donor of an Attic red-figured bell-krater that has also been returned to Italy (inv. 81.AE.149; Gill and Chippindale, no. 15; Nostoi no. 30).

Will the Getty be releasing full details of the collecting histories of these and other Sicilian pieces acquired by the museum? Where did Gerchik acquire them? How long did they reside in his "collection"? What is the basis of the Sicilian association?

Becchina: More Revelations from North American Museums?

Roman marble janiform head

North American museum directors and their curatorial staff know all too well the way that the Medici Dossier has shown how past acquisitions have damaged institutional reputations. Of course, more revelations from the Medici Dossier are likely to appear.

But I suspect the attention is beginning to shift to the Becchina archive. Readers will know that raids on this facility in Basel yielded 10,000 photographs as well as 200 bundles of receipts.

Becchina's name has been linked to an Athenian red-figured pelike, an Apulian situla, and the Roman marble janiform head seized from Christie's, the returned Etruscan hydria from the Toledo Museum of Art, the Apulian krater and the Campanian krater from the Dallas Museum of Art. Earlier returned pieces that had passed through Palladion Antike Kunst in Basel are three pieces (an Attic black-figured hydria, an Attic red-figured pelike, and an Apulian bell-krater) from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and two (an Attic red-figured amphora, and the Asteas krater) from the Getty. Perhaps one of the best-known pieces linked to Becchina is the Getty kouros.

Operation Andromeda has shown some of the contacts made by Becchina. There are also unresolved cases surround material in Madrid, the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, and in the Michael C. Carlos Museum. Material once handled by Becchina also continues to appear on the New York market.

It is likely that there will continue to be more identifications as attention switches to the 10,000 photographs and the associated receipts.

Toledo: Correction Request

Source: ICE

Gabriella Becchina, a resident of Castelvetrano in Sicily, has been in touch about an earlier post about the Etruscan hydria that had formed part of the collection in Toledo. She draws attention to the wording of the ICE press release (and I quote from a longer section in that release):

The kalpis, a ceramic vessel used in ancient times for holding water, depicts a mythological scene of pirates being transformed into dolphins by Dionysos. It was smuggled out of Italy after an illegal excavation prior to 1981. It was then sold in 1982 to the Toledo Museum of Art by art dealers Gianfranco and Ursula Becchina, who had earlier purchased it from convicted art smuggler Giacomo Medici. The Becchinas misrepresented the true provenance of the vase to the museum by providing falsified documentation. 

Following a January 2010 lead from HSI Rome, Cleveland-based HSI special agents launched an investigation into the true provenance of the artifact. Working closely with law enforcement officials in Italy, HSI special agents were able to definitively establish that the documentation provided to the Toledo Museum of Art was falsified and part of a larger scheme by the Becchinas to sell illegitimately obtained cultural property. Gianfranco Becchina was convicted in February 2011 of illicitly dealing in antiquities by a court in Rome. That conviction was appealed by Becchina and remains in the Italian court system.

[Emphasis suggested by Gabriella Becchina.]

She suggests that the post was misleading: "No mention, as you can see, of a scheme linking the return of the artwork and further illicitous purveying plans."

I hope that this rectifies the citation.

The head from Morgantina: intellectual consequences

Source: J. Paul Getty Museum

The terracotta head from Sicily that the J. Paul Getty Museum is not without interest. The catalogue entry for the head indicate the problems of trying to interpret an object without archaeological context.

The blue beard had suggested that the head represented Zeus. However the context, the sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone, where fragments of hair were located suggest that the correct representation is more likely to be Hades. Cited parallels suggested associations with South Italy, and specifically Capua, rather than Sicily (although Sicily is mentioned as a possible place of creation).

The entry suggests "probably broken off from a statue", though we do not know when this took place.

The collecting history suggests that it appeared on the "European art market" (for which we know equals Robin Symes) and then passed to a "private collection, United States" (i.e. Maurice Tempelsman).

The head was acquired in 1985. The previous year it had been published by Cornelius C. Vermeule III in Catalogue of a collection of Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities formed by a private collector in New York City during the past few decades (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), no. 11. This privately published catalogue also contained:

• the statue of Apollo returned to Italy (no. 8; "European art market; private collection, United States"); 
• the marble lekanis returned to Italy (no. 10; "European art market; private collection, United States");
• a bronze Etruscan statue of a youth (no. 14A; "European art market; private collection, United States"; = The Gods Delight [1988], no. 37, "Private collection, New York" and stated as unpublished);
• two bronze magistrates (no. 21; "European art market; private collection, United States"; = The Gods Delight [1988], no. 63; "Traveled through the art market and conceivably found with [64-66]"; 64 and 65 are also in the Getty, "European art market", "part of the same monument"; see here for link with Cleveland Museum of Art);
• a Roman bronze bust of a man (no. 22, "European art market; private collection, United States");
• the bust of L. Licinius Nepos (no. 23; "European art market; private collection, United States"); 
• the head of a balding man (no. 25; "European art market; private collection, United States");
• a head of a priest of saint (no. 26; "European art market; private collection, United States").

Will the Getty be publishing the complete collecting histories for all the items acquired from Maurice Tempelsman? Will the Cleveland Museum of Art be providing the full collecting history of the bronze Victoria?

It looks as if the returning head has opened yet another window on the world of collecting and museum acquisitions.

Bibliography
Walsh, J. 1986. "Acquisitions/1985." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 14: 173-286.

Getty returns terracotta head to Sicily

Head of Hades, about 400 - 300 B.C.
Source: J. Paul Getty Museum inv. 85.AD.105

The J. Paul Getty Museum has announced that it will be returning a fourth century BC terracotta head to Italy [press release]. The press release makes it clear that comparative material was found at Morgantina and that fragments from the hair were found in a sanctuary confirming its original location.

The press release tells us that the head was acquired in 1985. Daniel Ng and Jason Felch ("Getty Museum to return Hades terracotta head to Sicily", LA Times January 10, 2013) inform us that it was acquired from Maurice Tempelsman. The original source was Robin Symes. Why did the Getty omit this part of the collecting history?

This raises the question about other material in the Getty that was sourced from Robin Symes.