Donations and purchases at the J. Paul Getty Museum

My latest essay for the Journal of Art Crime looks at the pattern of donations of figure-decorated pot fragments to the J. Paul Getty Museum by Werner Nussberger. Some 6000 pieces were donated to the Getty in 1981. The study identifies how additional pieces from the same pots were purchased from Galerie Nefer in 1985 and 1986. Other handlers of pot fragments are identified. 

This pattern raises issues about how and when the pot fragments were dispersed before they made their way to the Getty. 

Gill, D. W. J. 2020. "Context matters: the fragmentary gifts of Werner Nussberger." Journal of Art Crime 24: 57-60.

Stockholm and a statue from the Medici Dossier

Source: Christos Tsirogiannis

Associate Professor Christos Tsirogiannis of Aarhus University has identified a Roman marble statue that surfaced on the Stockholm market. The statue had been spotted by Steffan Lundén who had then contacted Tsirogiannis. The identification was made from one of the images seized from the Medici Dossier. 

The statue was reported to have formed part of the Max Willborg (1933–2001) collection. Willborg ran galleries in London and Stockholm, and part of his pre-Colombian was sold at Christie's in 2001. 

When did Willborg acquire the statue? What other material was derived from the same source?

I am grateful to Christos Tsirogiannis for sharing this material with me.

Funerary reliefs from Ostia

Funerary reliefs of the Caltilii.
Source: Tampa Museum of Art (L), The J. Paul Getty Museum (R).

The Italian Senator, Margherita Corrado, has raised the issue of funerary reliefs from the tomb of the Caltilii in Ostia ("Italian Senator Margherita Corrado commenting on two suspect Roman altars at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Tampa Museum of Art", ARCA blog, December 8, 2020).  She has identified two Roman funerary reliefs that appear to come from a family burial area on the Via dei Sepolchri. One is in the J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. 83.AA.209), donated by Achille Moretti, and the other in the Tampa Museum of Art (inv. 1991.001), purchased by The Collectors. 

The Tampa relief is the monument of L. Caltilius Diadumenus (with a mention of L. Caltilius Euhodus) (AE 2001 [2004], no. 621, 'fouilles clandestines'), and the Getty shows the funerary altar of L. Caltilius Stephanus and Caltilia Moschis. Caltilia Moschis also appears in a second relief now in the Palazzo Mattei in Rome (and discussed in Roman Funerary Sculptures no. 27). The Getty relief surfaced in an exhibition, partly arranged with J. Frel, at Geneva's Musée d'histoire et d'art in 1982. Corrado's press release claims that documentation in the seized Becchina archive shows that Palladion Antike Kunst tried to sell the altar to a US museum on behalf of a Swiss-based collector. 

Did the curatorial team at Tampa investigate the history of the relief when concerns were raised about it in 2004? Who handled the relief before it was sold to Tampa?

The Becchina Archive and Armour from Italy

Marianne Mödlinger and Christos Tsirogiannis have published a study of armour. It includes a group of 'armor for horses' (inv. 83.AC.7.1–2, 3–4) and two helmets (inv. 83.AC.8.1–2), all placed in 'Southern Italy'. The pieces were purchased from Antike Kunst Palladion in 1983. All six objects appear in the same image from the seized Becchina archive. 

It is suggested, "the repatriation of these human and horse armour objects to Italy is the least that the Getty Museum should do".

Reference

Mödlinger, M., and C. Tsirogiannis. 2020. "Recent cases of unprovenanced armour in the antiquities market and its clients." Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 50: 323–37.

Fittings from a Roman Chariot

This presentation will explore how the description of objects by museums and in exhibition catalogues can alert researchers to the workings of the antiquities market. It will use a specific case study of four Roman bronzes that are said to have ‘traveled through the art market’ together: two were acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, one by the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the fourth by a North American private collection (and subsequently sold to the Getty). Was the movement of these figures fortuitous or does it indicate something more? The scientific study of the corrosion products suggests that they had shared a similar ‘burial environment’. Moreover, the bronzes are linked by the presence of ‘relatively homogenous’ fragments of red brick or tile embedded in their surfaces. What can we infer from the evidence?

An EPC Kotyle from the Medici Dossier

EPC Kotyle from the Medici Dossier.
Courtesy of Christos Tsirogiannis.

Christos Tsirogiannis, Associate Professor at the University of Aarhus, has linked a photograph from the Medici Dossier with the reverse of an Early Protocorinthian kotyle that is due to be offered for auction at Christies  (New York) on October 13, 2020 (lot 27). Although only one side is shown on the Christie's online catalogue, Tsirogiannis requested an image of the reverse from the auction-house and this has confirmed that they are one and the same. I understand that the District Attorney's office in New York was informed on Friday last week. 

The kotyle is provided with a history:

• Private Collection, U.K. 
• Art Market, U.K. 
• with Peter Sharrer Ancient Art, New York. 
• Acquired by the current owner from the above, 1997.

It is currently owned by an anonymous 'distinguished private collector'.

Peter Sharrer has been linked with at least one objects that has been returned to Italy: a Roman relief that was returned from Princeton in 2002. Sharrer was also the source for objects acquired by the Fleischmans as well as the Getty, the Michael C. Carlos Museum and Princeton. He is known to have acquired items from Robin Symes.

Why are the UK dealer and private collector anonymous? Are they are unknown? And where is the mention of the anonymous European collector in Christie's history?

Will other museums and collectors who purchased directly or indirectly from Sharrer conduct due diligence on their acquisitions?

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.