Chasing Aphrodite (48 page)

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The Goulandrises bought freely:
Interview with Stampolidis.

137
 becoming chummy with collectors:
Interview with Selma Holo. A protégée of Jiri Frel, Holo said that True's predecessor taught her always to remember that collectors and dealers are not friends but lavish praise and favors on curators to advance their own financial interests.
"
I have to say":
Eakin, "Treasure Hunt."
The small villa:
Greek land and sale documents.
on her curator's salary:
Interview with George Goldner.
He advised against it:
Eakin, "Treasure Hunt."

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He had wealth:
Christo's sister Despina married into the Papadimitriou family. Her shipping magnate husband and their son Dimitri used shell companies for both business and personal finances, according to testimony offered in a 2001 lawsuit filed against Symes by Christo's family after Christo's death. The family had forty offshore companies, some of which were controlled by Christo. "Never was Christo involved in the Papadimitrious' shipping, but, of course, the various 'Swiss' family offshore Panamanian companies controlled by Christo were used both by Christo for business and personal transactions," Despina testified in a March 21, 2001, deposition for the trial.
"
There is a lawyer":
Ibid.
a four-year loan:
Transaction documents supplied by Harry Stang, True's Los Angeles attorney.
Michaelides later told:
Interview with Dimitri Papadimitriou. In 2005, Michaelides' nephew recalled a conversation with his uncle in which Christo admitted being the source of the funds. Papadimitriou said that he also saw papers showing the $400,000 transaction. Later, through his London spokesman, Papadimitriou elaborated, saying that "any loan would have to come from family funds" and stressed that neither he nor his parents were involved in the loan.
"
I want someone":
The account of Papadopoulos's recruitment, work at the Getty, and specific conversations with True about the acquisition of the Fleischman collection is based on interviews with a former Getty official.

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 "Can you look":
Interview with a former Getty official.
The initials:
Footnote by Papadopoulos in the Italian Ministry of Culture's publication of the Francavilla Marittima material.

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Italian newspapers carried:
Interview with a former Getty official.
just another passing fad:
Interviews with two former Getty officials.

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 "
Do you know":
Interviews with Goldner.

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more than 40,000-piece collection:
"New Mission for Getty Villa in Malibu Defined, Preliminary Master Plan Approved by Trustees, Modifications to Antiquities Acquisitions Policy," Getty press release, November 20, 1995. (Re-lease put the collection at 30,000 objects, but officials say it was closer to 44,000.)
The announcement of:
Ibid.

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The reaction to:
Interviews with officials at the Met, Boston's MFA, and Ricardo Elia at Boston University.
Fleischman would later claim:
Interviews with Barbara Fleischman; Fleischman,
No Substitute for Quality;
Fleischman's 2004 deposition.

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True would be undermining:
In an interview, Heilmeyer, director of antiquities at the Berlin Museums, said that he also warned True against acquiring the Fleischman collection. "I said I would never get that collection, not even as a donation. I would never take it because there was a lot of looted material in there."
Walsh and True flew:
Walsh's 2004 deposition; True's 2001 deposition.

145 
With her hands shaking:
Interview with a former Getty official.
Papadopoulos began looking:
He became professor of classical archaeology, history, and culture at UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
Robin Symes was livid:
Interviews with Fleischman and two former Getty officials.

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Larry brought up:
This account of the conversation and the terms of True's loan is based on interviews with Fleischman; the Munger, Tolles & Olson investigation of the loan; and True in Eakin, "Treasure Hunt"; and Fleischman's statement to the Getty board shortly before resigning (see chapter 20).
She had agreed:
In interviews in 2006, Fleischman claimed that True had made payments of $3,000 a month religiously since 1996, but she would not provide documentation of the payments. Getty officials said that they had seen no evidence of the payments. Shortly before publication, the authors asked True through her attorney to provide proof of ongoing payments. She declined.

11: C
ONFORTI'S
M
EN

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Just months before:
This account is based on interviews with art squad members, the case file, and interviews with Silvio Raffiotta and Paolo Ferri.

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had tried to take:
Interview with Raffiotta.

In more recent years:
Visit to the Swiss Customs Museum in Cantine di Gandria.

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Tabaccheria Canavesi:
Visit to the shop, which has retained its name but is now owned by a relative.
General Roberto Conforti:
General Roberto Conforti's background is based on interviews with Conforti, other members of the art squad, and senior Italian cultural officials. See also Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini,
The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities
(PublicAffairs, 2006).

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 an investigation of Pasquale Camera:
This account is based on Italian court records; interviews with Ferri and other Italian investigators; and Watson and Todeschini,
Medici Conspiracy.
an organizational chart:
The authors obtained a copy of the chart from Italian court records.
the Swiss holding company:
Information about Edition Services and the description of it as a glorified mail drop are from a visit to the Geneva office and an interview with Albert Jacques. According to depositions given in the Greek lawsuit filed against Robin Symes by Christo Michaelides' family, Jacques was also involved in helping Symes set up his company, RS Ltd., in 1977.

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raided Medici's premises:
The description of the raid is based on interviews with participants; Italian court records; a visit to Geneva Free Ports; and photos of the raid from Andrew L. Slayman, "Geneva Seizure,"
Archaeology,
September 18, 1998, available at
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/geneva/index.html
.

153 
True testified under oath:
Marion True, deposition before Richard Robinson, October 4, 1995, Los Angeles. A copy of this deposition is in Italian court records. In her March 15, 2005, testimony before Paolo Ferri and Guglielmo Muntoni (Los Angeles; hereafter "True's 2005 testimony"), True gave a more accurate account that is supported by interviews with Robert Hecht and confidential Getty records.
True had written to Medici:
When Itali an authorities raided Medici's warehouse, they found several letters from True to Medici, including one in which she discussed the tripod.

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The Italians' request:
Interview with Rosario Alaimo, professor of geochemistry at the University of Palermo.
she handed him a baggie:
Interview with a former Getty official.

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 sent a letter to Getty CEO:
The contents of the letter and the two photographs sent with it were described by a senior Getty official and a second person familiar with their contents. True described the letter and her reaction to it in her October 17, 2006, statement to Ferri.

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More than a year later:
This account is based on a copy of True's remarks and interviews with those who attended the meeting, including Itali an government archaeologist Daniela Rizzo (no relation to Maria Antonietta Rizzo) and Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer.

12: T
HE
G
ETTY'S
L
ATESTA
T
REASURE

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Richard Meier's modernist creation:
Although a few critics noted the aloofness of the Getty Center's setting, most gushed praise. A writer in the December 7, 1997,
San Francisco Examiner
pronounced Meier's work to be "as brilliant and satisfying an executed architectural conception as any of us are ever likely to experience at such a colossal scale in our lifetime."
The trust's seven:
The programs were the Getty Museum, Research Institute, Conservation Institute, Leadership Institute, Grant Program, Education Institute for the Arts, and Information Institute.

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the Getty Museum's art collection:
The bulk of the antiquities collection was left in storage during the remodeling of the original Getty Museum in Malibu. On display, however, was a small exhibit of the Getty's best antiquities, titled, ironically enough, Beyond Beauty: Antiquities as Evidence. Among the objects highlighted was the Aphrodite. "Beyond its beauty every ancient artifact preserves additional information that has often been undervalued or overlooked ... This exhibition explores the variety of cultural, historical and technological evidence embedded within ancient works of art, and the important role that evidence plays in understanding and preserving such objects."
More than seven hundred:
After wildfires, an earthquake, the Rodney King beating by police, a riot, and the O. J. Simpson trial, the opening of the Getty Center was a source of relief for the city of Los Angeles. The
Los An
geles Times
dedicated its Sunday magazine to the event, and local glitterati scrambled for tickets to the eighteen invitation-only preview events, including several black-tie dinners.
the Getty's incoming CEO:
Details are from a videotape of the Getty Center opening found in the Getty Trust archives.
His goal was:
While reluctantly funding Meier's cultural acropolis, trustees privately fretted that its scale, location, and cost reinforced the Getty's image as too elitist. Board members Ramon Cortines, the Latino superintendent of Los Angeles city schools, and Blenda Wilson, the black president of California State University, Northridge, often complained that the Getty was off-putting to minorities because it "radiated wealth." Board chairman Robert Erburu worried openly about that image, often recalling a conversation he'd had about the new Getty Center with his Latino maid. "People like us don't belong there," she'd told him. Interview with a high-ranking Getty official.

161
 Munitz had grown up:
Munitz's personal history is from interviews with Munitz and published accounts, including "The CEO of Higher Learning," a
Los Angeles Times Magazine
profile that ran in January 1997 and is believed to have impressed Erburu. Erburu declined repeated requests for an interview.
He left his third wife:
Vicky Ward, "The Getty's Blue Period,"
Vanity Fair,
March 2006.
had enraged environmentalists:
Munitz's tenure at MAXXAM during the treecutting controversy dogged him when he moved to California. At one Cal State board meeting, environmentalists showed up dressed as trees and lay down in protest. Munitz responded by opening his address with "Ladies, gentlemen and trees..."

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Others lauded:
Indeed, a year before his appointment, Munitz was in such high regard that the
Orange County Register
started a review of his five-year tenure at Cal State this way: "Barry Munitz does not walk on water. But to his legion of supporters up and down the state, that's about the only thing that the head of the 22-campus California State University system cannot do."
He privately badmouthed:
The design flaws became painfully obvious when more than 800,000 people swamped the Getty Center during the first five months. There wasn't enough room in the underground parking garage, and the dearth of toilets was highlighted in a
New York Times
article on April 2, 1998, which began, "Here is a tip on how to enjoy the hottest new cultural attraction in Los Angeles: use the restrooms at the tram entrance before heading up to the Getty Museum." This discussion is also based on interviews with former Getty officials.

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the neighbors filed:
The seeds of the lawsuit were planted in July 1997, when Getty staffers had a private after-hours party at the villa to mark its closing for renovations. Neighbors were awakened by the noise reverberating up the canyon walls from the crowd, two bands, and the staffers splashing in the villa's reflecting pool. In February 2003, the California Supreme Court let an appellate court decision stand in favor of the Getty. But the lawsuit delayed new construction at the villa by at least three years, nearly doubling the price.
friends and colleagues noticed:
True's change of character is from interviews with several of her former colleagues and friends.
True stopped speaking:
Interviews with George Goldner.
She used the trust's wealth:
The description of True's use of Getty funds is based on several years of her Getty expense accounts.

164 
True signed a resolution:
Reformers in the European art world, who had earlier called for loans of antiquities, considered True's vocal support at Rutgers to be of major significance. Interview with Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer.
Six months later:
A record of the April 1999 panel discussion—which included True; writer and social critic Christopher Hitchens; attorney Patty Gerstenblith; art collector Shelby White; and Michael Daley, director of the art advocacy group ArtWatch International—can be found at
http://www.najp.org/events/whoowns/EVi(g)%20Antiquities.pdf.

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The appeal rallied:
Those lining up in favor of Steinhardt included the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Science Museum Directors, and the American Association for State and Local History. Those against it were the Archaeological Institute of America, the American Anthropological Association, the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the Society for American Archaeology, the American Philological Association, and the Society for Historical Archaeology.
"
the most serious threat":
From the amicus curiae briefs filed by the museum groups in favor of Steinhardt's appeal.