[MSN] Italy has asked the New York collector Shelby White to consider returning more than 20 ancient artifacts that it argues were illegally mined from its soil.

Wed Nov 29 13:17:32 CET 2006

November 29, 2006
Top Collector Is Asked to Relinquish Artifacts 
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROME, Nov. 28 - Seeking to build on its success in bargaining with a few
American museums, Italy has asked the New York collector Shelby White to
consider returning more than 20 ancient artifacts that it argues were
illegally mined from its soil, officials involved in the negotiations say. 

The request was relayed this month in a letter to Ms. White's lawyers, they
said. Rather than implicitly threaten legal action, however, as it
occasionally has in pursuing objects in major museum collections, the
government hopes to rely on moral suasion, said Maurizio Fiorilli, a lawyer
for the Italian Culture Ministry. He said negotiations would begin in
earnest in December.

Mr. Fiorilli said the Italian government was not implying that Ms. White or
Leon Levy, her husband, who jointly amassed the collection over 30 years,
were involved in any crime. (Mr. Levy died in 2003.)

Rather, "we're showing her that there is significant evidence that links
objects in her collection to illegal digs in Italy," said Mr. Fiorilli, who
leads the government commission seeking restitution of illegally excavated
archaeological artifacts.

"We're asking her to make her evaluations on an ethical level," he said.
"Should Ms. White say, 'I spent my money, and the Italian government can't
ask for anything back,' we'll take note, because we can't do anything."

"In the end," he added, "it depends on her sensitivity." 

Ms. White declined to be interviewed for this article. In recent years she
has said that she and her husband never knowingly bought any stolen
artifacts and that she has returned objects when warranted. Her lawyer,
Lucien Burstein, wrote in an e-mail message that while the discussions with
Italy were only preliminary, his client hoped "that a constructive
resolution will be reached."

While the Italians emphasize that their legal clout is minimal, their
request seems carefully timed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
where Ms. White is a trustee, has begun advance publicity for the April
opening of its new Greek and Roman galleries, which are named for and were
financed by Mr. Levy and Ms. White. Some antiquities owned by Ms. White and
sought by the Italians are currently on loan to the Met, displayed within
yards of the monumental court and atrium designed for the new galleries.

Italian officials first signaled that they might go after objects in Ms.
White's private collection about a year ago, when they were negotiating for
the return of two dozen antiquities acquired by the Met. The museum agreed
to turn over 21 artifacts in February in exchange for long-term art loans
from Italy and other gestures of cultural cooperation. (The first artifact
lent by the Italians, a Greek drinking cup from the sixth century B.C., goes
on view at the Met on Wednesday.)

As the rumblings about her collection intensified, Ms. White approached the
Italian Culture Ministry through a representative to discuss its claims, Mr.
Burstein said. He declined to comment on the specific claims, which have
blossomed from the pursuit of 9 items a year ago to the current 20 or so. 

The Italians are known to have linked 9 objects in the Levy-White
collection, including several vases, through photographs and documents to
Giacomo Medici, an Italian dealer who was convicted in 2004 of trafficking
in illegally excavated antiquities. 

Mr. Medici, who is appealing his conviction, said in a recent interview that
he had never had any direct commercial dealings with Ms. White. "I don't
think there are any of my pieces in their collection," he said.

Records show that some of the contested pieces, like a bronze kouros, were
bought through the London dealer Robin Symes. Photographs of the pieces, in
some cases covered with dirt as if they were newly excavated, were found in
Mr. Medici's warehouse. 

A two-handled Euphronios krater depicting Hercules in battle is also sought
by the Italians. Mr. Symes is said to have bought it in 1990 on behalf of
Mr. Levy and Ms. White at an auction of artifacts owned by the former
billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt. Italian prosecutors argue that many works in
the Hunt collection were of dubious provenance. Mr. Symes is also under
investigation in Italy but has not been charged there. 

Paolo Ferri, the prosecutor leading the investigation into the antiquities
trade, said in an e-mail exchange that because of new documentation Mr.
Symes's position would "soon be clarified."

In recent years Italy has embarked on an aggressive campaign to reclaim
objects believed to have been illegally dug up in its archaeologically rich
countryside and sold through dealers to foreign museums and private
collectors. 

Most visibly, the Italian government indicted Marion True, the former
curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, who is
now standing trial with the American dealer Robert Hecht on charges of
conspiring to deal in looted antiquities. (Italian negotiations with the
Getty on artifacts in its collection are at an impasse, although the museum
said last week it would unilaterally return 26 objects.)

In negotiating with Ms. White, Mr. Fiorilli said, he is gambling that
someone who has donated so much of her time and money to the cause of
archaeology will respond in "the right spirit." 

With her husband, Ms. White gave $20 million to create the new Greek and
Roman galleries at the Met. Through the Leon Levy Foundation she recently
donated $200 million to New York University to establish an institute of
ancient studies. She has also financed scholarship, publications and
archaeological excavations.

She and Mr. Levy shared a passion for classical antiquity, acquiring
hundreds of ancient artifacts as well as a reputation for dubious purchases
in a market where provenance and ownership can be tenuous at best. 

A 1999 study by two British archaeologists of objects that were exhibited at
the Met in 1990 in "Glories of the Past: Ancient Art From the Shelby White
and Leon Levy Collection" suggested that 84 percent of those objects
surfaced for the first time after 1973 and were likely to derive "from
looted archaeological contexts," said one of the authors, David Gill. 

In an interview he said that Ms. White had "never responded to the
accusations" he made with the other archaeologist, Christopher Chippindale.
As a serious collector, Ms. White "should have known better because the
pieces she bought had only recently surfaced on the market," he said.

Italy is not the only country making claims on the Levy-White collection.
The Turkish government has asked for the return of a large fragment of an
A.D. 170 sculpture known as the Weary Herakles, which Turkey says was
illegally excavated in 1980. In the 1990s Ms. White and Mr. Levy donated
several pieces to the British Museum, including a miniature model of a
leopard, after allegations surfaced that they had been looted from a Roman
site in England.

And in September the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, returned 13 contested
works to Italy, including an Apulian amphora that had been jointly purchased
by the couple and the museum, using money from a foundation named after Mr.
Levy's father. Ms. White bequeathed her half-share of the vase to the museum
shortly before title passed to Italy. 

Mr. Fiorilli, the Culture Ministry lawyer, cited that donation as proof of
her good will.

But Italy's negotiations with Ms. White are likely to differ from those
carried out with museums in at least one major respect: it has little to
offer in return for the objects.

While deals struck this year with the Met and the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, provided for long-term loans of artifacts whose importance equaled
that of the rarities being returned, a similar accord cannot be struck with
a private collector.

"I don't think the long-term-loan formula could be applied to private
citizens, keeping the objects in their homes," said Giuseppe Proietti, a
senior official at the Culture Ministry here. "Museums have the obligation
of making their collections and loans public."

For years art world insiders have speculated where the Levy-White collection
will end up. It was long assumed that the Met would be the main beneficiary,
but speculation has arisen that Ms. White or the Met may have other plans.

Harold Holzer, a spokesman for the Met, declined to comment on Tuesday on
whether the museum still hoped to acquire the Levy-White collection. The
issue is being "discussed internally," he said. 

He added that some of Ms. White's pieces would be on view when the new Greek
and Roman galleries open on April 20.

http://www.nytimes.com/