Lekanis

Lekanis

In 1985, American collector Maurice Tempelsman sold this painted marble lekanis, or ceremonial basin to the J. Paul Getty Museum for USD $2,200,000. The museum acquired it along with two other objects (a statue of Apollo and a sculpture of two griffins attacking a fallen deer) for a total of USD $10,200,000.

In private correspondence from 1987, acting Getty antiquities curator Arthur Houghton wrote that Italian antiquities trafficker Giacomo Medici had confirmed he had purchased all three objects from looters in 1975 or 1976. The lekanis had been found in a tomb near Taranto, southern Italy, with a statue of Apollo.  American dealer Robert Hecht confirmed Medici’s account for Houghton, further specifying that the objects had been looted from a "productive site" near Orta Nova.

The objects had been transferred from the looters to Medici, then to the Hecht and subsequently to the London dealer Robin Symes, who sold them to Tempelsman.

Years later, Houghton's description of his discussions about the lekanis with antiquities traffickers was uncovered by Getty attorneys, who considered it "smoking gun" evidence that the Getty's curators knew many of the objects they were acquiring had been recently looted. The fact that this was openly discussed in internal museum correspondence showed the practice of buying looted antiquities was not see as unusual at the time. The evidence was withheld from Italian authorities but later published by the Los Angeles Times.

During a raid of Medici's warehouse in Geneva in 1995, Italian authorities seized Polaroids showing the lekanis soon after it had been looted. When confronted with this evidence in 2006, the Getty agreed to return the lekanis along with dozens of other looted objects.

1

Vessel

Greek

Maurice Tempelsman

J. Paul Getty Museum

85.AA.107

Italy

Jason Felch

VG