Stela from Saittai (Lydia)

A Roman period stele from the sanctuary of Apollo at Saittai in Lydia, modern Turkey, has been recovered in Italy ("1,800-year-old artifact delivered to Turkey from Italy", Anadolu Agency 23 September 2020). It was seized in 1997 from an undisclosed antiquities dealer. The stela, inscribed in Greek, has now been returned to Turkey for display in Anakara. 

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).

An inscription from Kos

In 1983 the J. Paul Getty received the anonymous donation of a Greek inscription from Antimachia on Kos (J. Walsh, "Acquisitions/1983." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 12 (1984), 239, no. 37). This notice pointed to the previous publication of the stone when it had been observed built into the walls of the church of Ayia Marina where it had been observed first by Marcel Dubois ("Inscriptions des Sporades." Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 7 (1883) 481–82, no. 4) and then by William R. Paton (W.R. Paton and E. L. Hicks, The inscriptions of Cos (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891) 271–72, no. 383) who made some corrections to Dubois' text.

The anonymous donor of the inscription was Stefan Hornak who had acquired it in 1983 from Galleria Serodine SA in Ascona, Switzerland. Hornak was one of the people identified as a major donor to the Getty with objects worth $869,800 (Geraldine Norman and Thomas Hoving, "Spectrum: The fine art of tax avoidance", The Times 13 February 1987).

When did the inscription move from the church of Ayia Marina on Kos to the Galleria Serodine SA in Switzerland? What is the supporting documentation?

Walsh noted that the inscription would be published by Dirk Obbink.

Stele returns to Greece

Images: 
L, Sotheby's; R, Becchina archive 
(courtesy of Dr Christos Tsirogiannis)

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture has announced (Saturday 8 September 2018) that a stele that had been due to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London in June 2017 has been returned to Greece (Friday 7 September 2018). The identification had been made by Cambridge-based forensic archaeologist Dr Christos Tsirogiannis.

It appeared that the stele had been supplied with a falsified history as its presence with Becchina until 1990 contradicted the published sale catalogue entry. It then moved into the hands of George Ortiz.

A year ago it was suggested that Sotheby's should contact the Greek authorities. Those negotiations appear to have concluded successfully.

The 4th century BC stele fragment, with the personal name, Hestiaios, will be displayed in the Epigraphic Museum in Athens. It appears to have come from a cemetery in Attica.

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?