Italy’s supreme court has ruled that the Getty museum in Los Angeles must return a 2,000-year-old bronze statue it bought for almost $4m in 1977.
The museum has vowed to defend its “legal right” to the ancient Greek statue of Victorious Youth, also known as Athlete from Fano or simply the Getty Bronze, which was made by Greek sculptor Lysippos between 300 and 100 BC, after the court said it must be returned to Italy.
The bronze statue was discovered by fishermen off Pesaro, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, in 1964, sold several times, and eventually bought by the American museum over 40 years ago.
But Italy has always maintained that it was smuggled out of the country and acquired illegally, making its first formal request for its return from the US in 1989.
After an 11-year legal battle, the supreme court rejected an appeal by the J Paul Getty Museum against an order from the Pesaro judge Giacomo Gasparini in June for the statue to be confiscated.
Pesaro prosecutor Silvia Cecchi told Italian media that the supreme court ruling was “the final word from the Italian justice [system]” and that the Lysippos statue “must be returned”.
Culture minister Alberto Bonisoli urged US authorities to act quickly on the country’s behalf to “favour the restitution of the Lysippos to Italy”.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
