Chasing Aphrodite (46 page)

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made a surprising announcement:
Walsh's July 1, 1985, memo to museum staff. He also copied the staff of the Getty Trust.
Gianfranco Becchina:
Anti-Mafia law enforcement authorities in Sicily allege that Becchina has ties to the Sicilian Mafia. Specifically, one Mafia turncoat described Becchina as what is known in the Cosa Nostra as "
a disposizione
" —a friend of the family, someone who could be tapped by the Mafia for a favor if the need arose. Becchina's neighbor in Castelvetrano, Ciccio Messina Denaro, was made a member of the "Super Cosa," a council of the three most powerful Mafia families, soon after Frel's arrival. The Denaro family owned several sand quarries. One of Becchina's businesses in Castelvetrano was a cement company. His business partner in that venture would later be convicted of Mafia-related crimes. Becchina denies any ties to organized crime.

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He sent a memo:
Houghton's March 5, 1986, memo to Walsh, titled "Kouros: Public Guidance: Questions of Provenance." Houghton also noted that Becchina was "believed to work extensively with Italian sources" and that von Bothmer was convinced that the kouros had been "excavated recently, at Mozia, an island off Sicily's western coast."

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 "
The kouros documents":
Houghton's notes from March 5, 1986.
In March 1986:
Interviews with Hoving; Hoving,
False Impressions,
279–80.

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 "
Frel told me":
Houghton's notes of the March 17, 1986, meeting with Gribbon, Walsh, and True. According to Houghton's notes, Walsh and True both thought it better not to investigate the suspect kouros documents: "JW said he believed the kouros was a recent discovery. It may have been found in S. Italy, delivered from Italians through Becchina to us. He did not want to pursue the matter of the letters—it was better not to know whether the signatures were authentic. MT made strong recommendation that the Museum should not know that the letters were forged. We should not confirm it. I disagreed."

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a carefully orchestrated plan:
Houghton's notes, his resignation letter, and interviews with former Getty officials. Among those Walsh consulted after reading Houghton's resignation letter was Harry Stang, an attorney at Musick, Peeler, the Getty's law firm. Years later, Stang would represent True after she was indicted by the Italians.

5: A
N
A
WKWARD
D
EBUT

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Marion True had come:
Biographical details about True are from her résumé her high school yearbook; and interviews with friends, a high school classmate, town officials, and former professors and colleagues, including Stanley Moss and John Herrmann. Details about her marriage to the cardiologist come from public records and an interview with her stepdaughter Fiona McCaughan. The account of True's early years at the Getty is based on interviews with former Getty staff and True's annual performance evaluations, in which she described her work. True provided details about her career in Marion True, written statement submitted to Paolo Ferri, Rome, October 17, 2006 (hereafter "True's October 17, 2006, statement to Ferri").

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a growing taste for extravagance:
Interview with McCaughan.
cleaned $50,000 out:
According to McCaughan, citing conversations with her father, who is now dead. In a written reply to the authors, True denied the story: "I did not leave with $50,000 nor did I claim I had the right to $50,000. We never had $50,000, but $35,000 from the sale of our previous residence. I took enough money to buy a car ($5000 for a Honda CVCC) and $750 to pay the deposit on a studio apartment in Cambridge. The divorce, for which I filed, was a no-fault divorce and I asked for nothing—no alimony, no property or anything else."

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She refused to return:
Interview with a London dealer and an American curator knowledgeable about the arrangement, which True confirmed in her written reply to the authors: "Ingrid McAlpine could not demand the return of the money, because there were no grounds and I was not fired. After 4 months, I had found another position with Stanley Moss and resigned."
Frel believed:
Interview with Faya Causey.

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she left the controversial Straw:
In her written reply to the authors, True said, "I had no position in Steven Straw and Co., but was paid on an hourly basis for research done on 19th [century] American and European paintings (not my field) and thus did not consider it a part of my 'professional' experience as a specialist in antiquities."
largely by default:
Account of True's selection based on interviews with Delivorrias, Houghton, Goldner, and a close friend of True's at the time.

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True never did tell:
In her reply to the authors, True wrote, "When A. Houghton suggested that I report the dispute with [the] McAlpines as part of my background, I did not understand the need. There was no dispute to report—I had left of my own free will—and no lawsuit was ever filed. Also, to my knowledge, the Getty Museum never did business with the McAlpines."
Houghton placed a call:
Houghton recounted the call in a letter to a former colleague still employed at the Getty.

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True reluctantly picked up:
True's kouros investigation is detailed in her December 1986 report to Bruce Bevan.
only one other person:
In 1990, further evidence came to light that the kouros was a fake. Jeffrey Spier, an American archaeologist and occasional antiquities dealer, told True that he had been shown the torso of a smaller kouros that was an obvious fake and bore a striking resemblance to the Getty's. The Italian seller told Spier it was the Getty kouros's "younger brother" and had been made by the same forger. Through further research with market sources, Spier learned that both statues had been carved by Fernando Onore, one of Rome's most renowned restorers and copyists, from the same large block of weathered marble taken from the ancient city of Selinunte, Sicily. When Onore was finished, others created the fake patina by rubbing the surface with lead, then "cooking" it in a bath of muriatic acid to crystallize the surface before giving it a final soak in sulfuric acid. It was then polished with chestnut leaves, which stained the surface a brownish color. The large kouros was reportedly given to a middleman in Calabria, who sold it to Gianfranco Becchina for 200 million lire (about $100,000). It is not clear whether Becchina was aware of its origins. The smaller kouros received a different patina. It was rubbed with vinegar and buried in the ground for more than a year. The result was less convincing. Several major dealers in Switzerland had refused to buy it, despite a rapidly falling price. It was being offered to Spier because it was "burned" on the market. When True heard Spier's story, she was intrigued. The Getty purchased the torso of the small kouros, paying $25,000 plus a $75,000 "finder's fee" to the dealer. Its similarities to the larger kouros led True to doubt the authenticity of the Getty's statue even more. She confided to Spier and others that she now thought the Getty's statue was "almost certainly a fake." When True showed the smaller kouros to Becchina, the dealer became furious, claiming that Giacomo Medici had had it made to discredit the Getty's statue. True's own investigation confirmed Becchina's suspicion: Medici had ordered the forgery made. When True confronted Medici about the small kouros, the dealer laughed and offered to donate its missing pieces—two legs and the head—to the Getty. The pieces had not received the botched acid wash and were a floury white—almost a perfect match to the larger kouros. If, as it appears, the larger kouros was an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Medici to undermine his rival Becchina, the scheme worked. The Getty never did business with Becchina again, and Medici became the museum's principal source of antiquities. The authors were unable to locate Onore, and Becchina refused to comment.

6: T
HE
W
INDBLOWN
G
ODDESS

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she paid a visit:
The story of the Aphrodite in Battersea and its arrival at the Getty were detailed in an interview with antiquities conservator Jerry Podany and in his conservation report. Its subsequent acquisition, as well as technical details about the statue, are contained in the museum's files and in confidential Getty records of the subsequent internal investigation. The files include True's acquisition proposal, one of the few expert views rendered on the statue.
Symes was a fair:
In a March 20, 2001, deposition for an unrelated lawsuit against Symes, Christo's sister Despina Papadimitriou described how the couple worked. "My brother had a good eye for beautiful objects. He had enormous drive, energy and vision and usually took the initiative in acquiring objects and undertaking business risk. He also had my family's strong financial background and was accustomed to considerable wealth ... Robin also had a good eye but was more conservative. His strongpoint was an ability to sell works of art to clients at a high price and to keep those clients happy."
Their London house:
The two separate houses at 1/3 Seymour Walk had been joined into one. Symes and Michaelides shared the residence for more than twenty years.

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"
Not to worry":
Interview with Nicolaos Yalouris, a former friend and colleague of True's, who said that the curator had been corrupted by the antiquities market.
Love had often warned:
Interview with Iris Love. True denied this account through her attorneys.
The Getty's existing:
The Getty's 1980 acquisition policy applied to all acquisitions, not just antiquities, and included the following strict conditions: "No object will be approved for acquisition if it is suspected of being illegally exported from its country of origin or imported into the United States; no object will be approved for acquisition without assurance that valid and legal title can be transferred to the Museum; The J. Paul Getty Museum will abide by all United States and international law concerning transfer of ownership and transportation across boundaries; every effort will be made by the Museum to inquire into the provenance of the acquisition."
Walsh disagreed with:
John Walsh, deposition before Daniel Goodman and Guglielmo Muntoni, New York, September 21, 2004 (hereafter "Walsh's 2004 deposition"); interview with Walsh; Walsh's confidential policy proposal to Harold Williams, November 5, 1987.

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Walsh proposed a solution:
Walsh's proposal and the internal debate over it in September 1987 are captured in the draft policy and copies of Walsh's handwritten notes. In an interview, Walsh confirmed to the authors the authenticity of the notes and elaborated on them. He and Williams still insist that the conversation—including statements such as "We know it's stolen" and "Symes is a fence"—were hypothetical and not direct references to the Aphrodite, which was being considered for acquisition at the time. True gave a different account, saying that the Aphrodite was seen internally as a "test case" for the new policy. Marion True, statement before Paolo Ferri, Rome, October 28, 2006 (hereafter "True's October 28, 2006, statement before Ferri").
Could the Getty:
While at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Williams had played a central role in advocating for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and knew the museum might be held criminally liable for any bribes paid at any point in an object's path to the Getty.

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Luis Monreal.
...
exploded:
Interviews with Luis Monreal. In a 2007 statement to the authors, Walsh said, "I believe we performed every test that the museum's conservators ... thought might possibly be informative." In his own 2007 statement to the authors, Williams said that Monreal often sent "alarmist notes" and that Walsh's response in regard to the Aphrodite was "appropriate."

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If it contained pollen:
Some experts today debate whether palynology, the study of pollen, was sufficiently advanced at the time to make such a determination. Twenty years later, when the Getty finally tested the pollen and soil, experts were able to determine that they were consistent with samples from Sicily.

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one very upset antiquities dealer:
Hoving's conversation with the dealer was off the record. Hoving, who died in 2009, never broke his commitment to the dealer, refusing to provide the dealer's name to Italian authorities.
A top Sicilian smuggler:
Orazio di Simone, according to Hoving. Di Simone's name would emerge again years later as a "friend" of the man who sold Symes the statue. When questioned by Italian authorities in a separate legal case, di Simone offered to lead them to the missing fragments of the Aphrodite, including her nose. In an interview in Rome with his attorney present, di Simone acknowledged knowing Renzo Canavesi, a "fellow coin collector," but denied being a smuggler or having any involvement in the Aphrodite. "What I know I've learned from the papers," he said. "There's nothing worse than a rumor that gets out and goes all around the world and stays on you as a mark forever."

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Hoving hung up:
Interviews with Hoving; Hoving's personal files.

7: T
HE
C
ULT OF
P
ERSEPHONE

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city-state of Morgantina:
The description of Morgantina is based on a visit to the site and interviews with Malcolm Bell, the director of the site's American archaeological team. The history of ancient Sicily is from M. I. Finley, Denis Mack Smith, and Christopher Duggan,
A History of Sicily,
vol. 1 (Viking, 1987). Sources as old as the Homeric "Hymn to Persephone" and Ovid's
Metamorphoses
mention Lake Pergusa as the site of Persephone's abduction. It was along its shaded banks, the Homeric hymn recounts, that Persephone plucked a "cosmic flower" and out popped Hades, her uncle and the god of the underworld.

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Giuseppe Mascara:
The authors tried to contact Mascara in both Sicily and Milan, where he moved after reportedly receiving death threats for cooperating with authorities. He would not comment. In the authors' interviews with Bell, he recalled crossing paths with Mascara several times in the early 1980s.
Looking at the photos:
Despite mounting scientific evidence linking the Aphrodite to the Morgantina region, Bell has long been skeptical of the idea, more because of the absence of concrete evidence than his having any evidence to the contrary. Some experts suspect that Bell's reluctance to accept Morgantina as the source has its roots in his theory of the city's economic decline in the late fourth century
B.C.,
something that would be hard to square with the statue having been created at that time.