[MSN] Shelby White: "it's not as though she is hiding anything" (David Gill, Looting Matters)

[MSN]

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Shelby White: "it's not as though she is hiding anything"
 
Back in 2006 Frances Marzio, a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Houston, was interviewed for The New York Observer (Jason Horowitz, "How Hot
Vase It?", February 19, 2006). The context was the investigation by Italian
authorities into objects in the Shelby White collection including an Attic
red-figured calyx-krater attributed to the Eucharides painter.


The krater is one of several objects named some time ago in documents
obtained by The New York Observer, in which Italian prosecutors charge that
several key treasures in Ms. Shelby's collection were mined illegally from
Italian soil.
Horowitz continued:

On Monday, Paolo Ferri, a leading prosecutor in the Italian investigation,
told The Observer that his team had unearthed fresh evidence on Jan. 31
linking new items in Ms. White's collection to the Aboutaam family, the
owners of the Phoenix Ancient Art gallery and the target of several
investigations and convictions in Egypt and New York. ...

"Now we have new documents through Aboutaam," said Mr. Ferri. "We have
photographs and paper trails that link even more of the Levy-White
collection to the Aboutaams and [Giacomo] Medici ... The connection is very
strong."

He would not specify which new pieces in Ms. White's collection were coming
under scrutiny as a result of the Aboutaam evidence.
How did Shelby White respond back in 2006?

Let me put it this way: We bought in good faith, we published everything, we
supported archeology, and we supported conservation ... We acted in good
faith, and if we did anything wrong, I am prepared to address that.
And that probably explains why on mid-January she handed over nine
antiquities to Italian authorities (and a tenth will follow). (We are still
waiting for the publication of the list, though nine of the pieces are going
on display in Rome.)

So it was back in 2006 that Frances Marzio was asked about her views on
Shelby White:

"In the case of people like Shelby White, it's not as though she is hiding
anything," said Frances Marzio, a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Houston. "She is lending things internationally, publishing things. I don't
see any deviousness; she funds excavations. If you don't put things out
there, how will we learn about their history? You take a risk by putting
things out there. People could claim it."
What we now know is that at the time a bronze krater was on loan from Shelby
White to Houston.

Frances Marzio reassures us about Shelby White:

it's not as though she is hiding anything.
Shelby White has been quoted as saying:

I want to be helpful.
So there is nothing to hide and Shelby White wants to be helpful.

Please could the collecting history for the bronze krater in Houston be
disclosed?

images:
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2008/02/shelby-white-its-not-as-though-sh
e-is.html