Chasing Aphrodite (47 page)

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 "
I would therefore":
During the Aphrodite controversy and for years after, True and other Getty officials would distort Bell's conclusion, saying that he had completely ruled out Morgantina as a possible place of origin for the statue.
Graziella Fiorentini:
Fiorentini did not respond to several requests for an interview. Her account is taken from her complaint to Italian authorities; her cables to True; her interview with Patricia Corbett, a reporter for
Connoisseur;
and Italian investigative documents. Thomas Hoving, Corbett's editor at the time, provided her handwritten notes to the authors.

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True tried calling:
True's account of these events is contained in her October 28, 2006, statement before Ferri and in confidential Getty records relating to the subsequent review of the acquisition.
the precise timing:
Years later, Getty officials and the Getty's outside counsel, Munger, Tolles & Olson, would not say which came first—the Mailgram or Williams's signature.

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the Carabinieri's art squad:
Information about the art squad's early years is from interviews with General Roberto Conforti and other Italian officials.

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Raffiotta launched an investigation:
Based on interviews with Silvio Raffiotta and Fausto Guarnieri, who became the lead investigator of Mascara and the Aphrodite and worked closely with Raffiotta.

104 
Orazio di Simone:
The art squad has a lengthy file on di Simone, who was arrested several times in the 1980s and 1990s for his alleged involvement in antiquities smuggling. He was charged but never convicted for his role in the Aphrodite case. In the authors' interview with him in Rome, di Simone described himself as a coin collector and denied being a smuggler or having ties to the Sicilian Mafia, as some have alleged. At the time of the interview, he was under investigation again for his alleged role in another antiquities smuggling operation.
The three marble:
Guarnieri's sources told him that the shepherds, the Campanella brothers, had gone to the hillside of the San Francesco Bisconti district of Morgantina after a big storm looking for coins and saw the top of a marble head poking out of the ground. That night, they returned to the site and put up a small tent to hide the light of their lamps and protect the hole they were digging from the rain. They found two marble heads and a number of matching feet and hands. A few days later, they found a third head nearby. It had a broken nose and was of a slightly different style—a description that matches the head of the Aphrodite. The Campanellas reportedly sold the three heads to middlemen in nearby Piazza Armerina for 200,000 lire (about $1,000). The middlemen allegedly sold them to di Simone. When approached by one of the authors at his farm, one of the Campanella brothers denied having ever seen the Aphrodite. "Here, if you talk, they shut your mouth and cut your throat," the aging shepherd said. His wife added, "Here, you see something and you didn't see anything, you hear something and you didn't hear anything. If you want to live happy, you don't know anything."

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one of
Connoisseur
's best researchers:
Patricia Corbett.

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the feud between:
Luis Monreal's exchange with John Walsh is based on interviews with Monreal and a description of the letters by two sources who wish to remain anonymous.

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just beginning his investigation:
The description of Guarnieri's investigation is based on Italian court records and interviews with Guarnieri and Raffiotta. The details were confirmed and expanded on in an October 3, 1989, report by the Sicilian journalist Enzo Basso in
Il Venerdi di Repubblica.
Basso did not name his source at the time but later confirmed that Mascara had given him details of the statue's discovery. Mascara was also one of Guarnieri's sources.

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an anonymous tip:
Some have speculated that the source of the tip was Robert Hecht, who was living in Paris at the time and likely would have known about the Aphrodite's discovery. Hecht was known to drop a dime on competitors when he was cut out of a deal. He would not comment on this speculation.
Nicolo Nicoletti:
Nicoletti and di Simone were named in the subsequent criminal complaint filed by Raffiotta but were never convicted.

8: T
HE
A
PTLY
N
AMED
D
R.
T
RUE

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 Heilmeyer's radical thoughts:
Interviews with Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer.

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 "
Well, this is":
Interview with Heilmeyer.

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 "
Holy doodle":
This comes from True's deposition in the lawsuit filed by the government of Cyprus and the Greek Orthodox Church against art dealer Peg Goldberg regarding the mosaic. Marion True, deposition before Thomas Kline and Joe Emerson of Baker & Daniels, Los Angeles, April 25, 1989.
Karageorgis had started out:
Houghton's notes detail the delicate negotiations with Cyprus over the idol. Houghton learned that the Getty had purchased it in 1983 for $480,000. A little digging revealed that the provenance information submitted by Jiri Frel had been invented. The object had likely been illegally exported from France (not Switzerland) and smuggled into the United States. The Getty also had likely paid nearly $300,000 too much for it. Although all this was troubling, Houghton's real concern was, once again, the optics. "Cyprus would seem to have no evidentiary basis for a claim that might compel the Museum to return the idol," he advised attorney Bruce Bevan, "but ... publicity about it could become very negative, particularly if it follows some vigorous public discussion about provenance issues with other material, such as the kouros."
had been illegally removed:
For a detailed account of the case, see Dan Hofstadter,
Goldberg's Angels
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994).

117 "
We as an institution":
When Goldberg's attorney asked her to clarify what she meant, True went further: "Well, obviously we are a museum that is in its acquiring phase, and we buy art on a continuing basis. At the same time it is our feeling that we should do this in as ethical a manner as possible, and that means that in making acquisitions we also want to respect the laws of the art-rich nations ... and it would be I think really against our interests, against the interests of the institution that I represent, and my personal interest as a scholar to buy objects that were really—in a way that was counter to the interests of those countries." True carefully avoided any mention of the Getty's recent dispute with Cyprus over the museum's own incautious purchase of the looted idol. Instead, she portrayed the upcoming conference on Cyprus as a happy coincidence rather than part of the settlement of the nation's claim to the idol.

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 "
All the red flags":
Testimony of Gary Vikan, an expert in Byzantine art and at the time curator of medieval art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. He is now the museum's director.
True organized:
A month after the conference, Italy's minister of culture Francesco Sisinni contacted John Walsh about the Getty Bronze. Italy had not forgotten the old sleight. The Getty was ethically and legally obliged to return the bronze, Sisinni wrote, which Italy claimed had been exported illegally from the country. Walsh responded, "The statue has a tenuous relationship to Itali an patrimony ... To our knowledge no new facts have come to light that might affect our view of the status of the statue." Despite Walsh's bravado, the Getty hired Italian attorneys to review their legal standing in the case.
Meeting with Italian officials:
Interview with Adriano La Regina, Rome's superintendent of antiquities. It was during a coffee break at this conference, True would later testify, that she was approached by an acquaintance named Giacomo Medici. Medici introduced his daughter, who was interested in archaeology and had applied to True's alma mater, New York University. True agreed to have dinner with the Medicis that night.
The Lex Sacra:
Adapted from Margaret M. Miles,
Art as Plunder: The Ancient Origins of Debate About Cultural Property
(Cambridge University Press, 2008); internal Getty documents; and interviews with archaeological authorities at Selinunte, who to this day recall True's gesture.

119 
In March 1992:
This account is drawn from confidential Getty records; Greek, German, and Interpol law enforcement records; and interviews with senior members of the Greek art squad. Nikolas Zirganos, a Greek investigative reporter, uncovered much of the Greek side of the story and provided unmatched assistance to the authors. The description of the wreath and its artistic parallels is drawn from True's acquisition proposal and interviews with Jerry Podany, who accompanied True on her visit to the Zurich bank vault. True's thoughts are drawn from her account of the ordeal in her October 28, 2006, statement before Ferri. Subsequent criminal charges against True were eventually dropped because the statute of limitations expired during her Greek trial.

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On a business trip:
Interview with Frieda Tchakos.
Christoph Leon:
Leon was a fallen archaeologist who had trained at the German archaeological school near Olympia, Greece. While there, Leon struck his colleagues as a clever young man and a promising archaeologist, someone who had the brains and the skill to make important advances in the field. But the young Austrian spent much of his time talking about fast cars and the fine restaurants he hoped to enjoy—luxuries the archaeological service would never offer. After receiving his degree, Leon drifted into the antiquities market, serving as an adviser to one of the biggest antiquities collectordealers of the day, Elie Borowski. His former colleagues saw the move as a betrayal.

9: T
HE
F
LEISCHMAN
C
OLLECTION

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whose friendship with the couple:
In sworn statements and court documents, both True and Barbara Fleischman claimed to have met in 1991. In fact, they met several years earlier, around 1986 (see chapter 17, note 6). Italian prosecutor Paolo Ferri believes that True and Fleischman attempted to obscure their earlier relationship to mask True's influence on the Fleischman collection.
the pieces were displayed:
This description is derived from photos in the 1994 Getty exhibit catalogue and from people who visited the Fleischmans' apartment.
came from modest origins:
The Fleischmans' background is drawn from interviews and Barbara Fleischman's self-published book,
No Substitute for Quality
(Greenwich Publishing Group, 1995), written for her husband's seventieth birthday in 1996.

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 Overweight, outgoing, and at times pushy:
This description is from an interview with someone close to the Fleischmans.
Art, he preached:
Oral history interview with Lawrence A. Fleischman, February 28 to March 9, 1970, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

126 
His buying power:
Interview with Max Anderson, former assistant antiquities curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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 "
Larry Fleischman has bought":
J. Michael Padgett's handwritten letter to Karen Manchester.
"
Everything comes":
Interview with someone close to the Fleischmans.
The Fleischmans' relationship:
Barbara Fleischman, deposition before Paolo Ferri and Guglielmo Muntoni, New York, September 20, 2004 (hereafter "Fleischman's 2004 deposition"). True described her relationship with the Fleischmans in her October 17 and 28, 2006, statements to Ferri. She noted her stays with them in her expense accounts, where she sought reimbursement for hospitality gifts, usually meals or flowers, purchased for them. In Walsh's 2004 deposition, he said that he encouraged the relationship.
a bidding war:
Interview with George Goldner, former Getty drawings curator, who acted as an informal go-between during the negotiations.

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 "
surgical strike":
Interview with someone close to the Fleischmans.
True urged her bosses:
Confidential Getty documents prepared for the $5.5 million purchase from Fleischman.
"
I think it is":
True's January 1992 memo to John Walsh.

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She offered the Getty:
Fleischman's 2004 deposition and her statement to the Getty board shortly before resigning (see chapter 20).

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 Fleischman was stunned:
Ibid.
"
I can't afford":
Fleischman's 2004 deposition.
"
I have a wonderful":
Interview with John Herrmann.
the MFA pulled out:
Ibid.
On opening night:
Details of the Fleischman exhibit are from Fleischman,
No Substitute for Quality,
and Getty records in the Getty Trust archives.
nearly two hundred objects:
Fleischman,
No Substitute for Quality,
124.

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 Suddenly, one boy:
Audio recording of Fleischman's lecture at the Getty.
were well aware:
Based on an interview with a former official. Barbara Fleischman has denied being courted by the Getty for donations of money or antiquities.

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The tension had become:
Interviews with two former members of the Getty conservation staff.
invited Harold Williams:
Ibid.

10: A H
OME IN THE
G
REEK
I
SLANDS

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True had always longed:
The account of how True learned about the Paros house and her arrangements for a loan to buy it is based on True's October 17 and 28, 2006, statements to Ferri; interviews with Dimitri Papadimitriou, the nephew of Christo Michaelides; and Hugh Eakin, "Treasure Hunt," A Reporter at Large,
The New Yorker,
December 17, 2007.
a passport into:
Descriptions of Greek society are based on interviews with Benaki director Angelos Delivorrias and Museum of Cycladic Art director Nicholas Stampolidis; reporting by Greek investigative journalist Nikolas Zirganos; and True's October 17 and 28, 2006, statements to Ferri.