[MSN] Marion True, Getty Museum's former antiquities chief says the market for ancient art is probably the most corrupt of art markets, with unscrupulous dealers peddling smuggled goods.

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Getty Ex-Curator Says Antiquities Trade `Corrupt,' Art Smuggled 

By Vernon Silver

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The J. Paul Getty Museum's former antiquities chief
said the market for ancient art is probably the ``most corrupt'' of art
markets, with unscrupulous dealers peddling smuggled goods, according to a
written statement made to a Rome court where she's on trial for buying loot
for the Getty. 

Marion True, the former antiquities curator of the Los Angeles-based Getty,
the world's wealthiest art institution, said she fought the illicit trade by
tightening the Getty's acquisition standards, and by purchasing and
documenting objects of unknown origin so they wouldn't be lost to the
private trade. 

``The museum had to accept the premise that the majority of antiquities
available on the market had, in all probability, been exported from the
countries of origin illegally,'' True, 58, wrote, explaining why the Getty
adopted policies that restricted artifacts it could buy. 

True's lawyers submitted her statement today to the Rome Tribunal as
evidence in her trial, in which she's charged with conspiracy and receiving
stolen antiquities for the Getty's collection. True denies the charges. 

Among the steps she took to battle the illicit trade was a ban on buying
objects that hadn't been part of a known collection or been documented in a
publication before 1995. Last month the Getty further limited its
antiquities purchases in most cases to those documented before 1970. 

``I knew, in fact, that the antiquities market was filled with risks for
those who wished to purchase objects, as it included many unscrupulous
dealers, who had no qualms about selling fakes or objects that had been
stolen or exported illegally from their country of origin,'' True wrote in
the 19- page memo, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. 

Negotiations 

She wrote the statement to clarify and add to comments she made in earlier
questioning by prosecutors, one of her lawyers, Francesca Coppi, said. 

Judges in the case will base their ruling both on written evidence submitted
to the court and verbal testimony of witnesses. A transcript of her earlier
questioning, conducted in Los Angeles, is already in evidence. 

True hasn't testified in the Rome court and isn't required to be present at
the trial, which started a year ago and which she has attended once. 

Her statement, which casts True and the Getty as reformers in a corrupt
market, comes as the Getty negotiates with Italy over government demands
that the museum return some of the 52 disputed antiquities in its
collection. 

True, who was antiquities curator from 1986 through 2005, said in her
statement that when she took the job she helped draft a memo to the Getty
board to explore whether it was possible to continue to collect antiquities
in a tainted market. 

``The memorandum pointed out that the antiquities market was probably the
most corrupt of the art markets,'' she wrote in her statement to the Rome
Tribunal. 

To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Silver in Rome at
vtsilver at bloomberg.net 

http://www.bloomberg.com/