The Getty Aphrodite
Object or Group Name
The Getty Aphrodite
Case Summary
This 5th century BCE marble and limestone cult statue of a goddess is one of the most important Greek sculptures ever discovered.
The 7-foot tall, 1,300-pound statue of limestone and marble was created by Greek artisans working in Sicily at the peak of the Classical period, with flowing robes emulating a wet drapery style used by the master sculptor Phidias on the Parthenon sculptures in Athens.
The sculpture first surfaced in 1979 when two shepherds, the Campanella Brothers, reportedly found the sculpture just outside the archaeological site of Morgantina, Sicily after a rain storm. They sold it to a antiquities middleman, Orazio di Simone, of nearby Gela. The local head of a team of looters, Giuseppe Mascara, told authorities that it had been found not far from the location where his team discovered a large marble bust, which appeared to match the goddesses limestone body, and two small marble heads (see Demeter and Kore).
The body of the sculpture was reportedly too large to smuggle out of Italy, so di Simone had it broken it into three large pieces and smuggled with the large head north through Italy in the back of a produce truck loaded with carrots. By 1980, the sculpture was in Chiasso, Switzerland in the possession of a former Swiss border guard named Renzo Canavesi. Photos were later discovered showing the sculpture in pieces there before its restoration.
In 1986, Canavesi sold the sculpture to London antiquities dealer Robin Symes for USD $300,000. It was transported to Symes' London warehouse and reassembled. It is there that Getty antiquities curator Marion True first viewed the sculpture in 1987 and concluded it likely represented Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. She soon recommended the museum buy it.
"It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the proposed statue for this Museum or, indeed, any other collection in the world," she told the Getty board in her acquisition proposal. "Original stone sculpture from the 5th century BC came to be considered the acme of human artistic achievement by the Romans under the Empire, the Italians of the Renaissance, and ever succeeding Western society in various phases of Classical revival."
"The proposed statue of Aphrodite would not only become the single greatest pieces of ancient art in our collection; it would be the greatest piece of Classical sculpture in this country and any country outside of Greece and Great Britain," she concluded.
In fact, the statue would bring True and the Getty infamy and legal jeopardy.
In 1988, the Getty Museum bought the sculpture from Symes for the record-breaking sum of USD $18 million. It was the subject of immediate controversy inside the museum, as evidence suggested it had been recently looted. There was dirt still in the sculpture's folds, and the clean breaks in the body suggested it had been recently broken into pieces – a telltale sign of smuggling.
Italian authorities demanded the return of the statue soon after the Getty put it on display in 1988, but lacked evidence to prove their claim.
In 2006, Italy demanded the return of the Aphrodite again as part of its criminal investigation of Marion True's ties to Italian antiquities trafficking networks. A Greek investigation had also uncovered extensive evidence of Robin Symes' ties to trafficking networks in the region.
The Getty hired private detectives to interview Canavesi and were shown more than a dozen photos of the statue suggesting it had been recently smuggled, not in his family collection for decades, as he had claimed. The investigators also found evidence connecting Canavesi with Di Simone, who Italian authorities said was a Sicilian antiquities smuggler with ties to the Mafia.
The evidence convinced the Getty to settled its dispute with Italy in the fall of 2007 by agreeing to return 40 prominent objects from its antiquities collection, including the Aphrodite. In turn, Italy offered to loan the Getty about 50 comparable antiquities, part of a broader cultural collaboration between the parties.
In 2010, the sculpture was shipped back to Sicily, where is was installed in the archaeological museum in Aidone, just outside the archaeological site of Morgantina.
The 7-foot tall, 1,300-pound statue of limestone and marble was created by Greek artisans working in Sicily at the peak of the Classical period, with flowing robes emulating a wet drapery style used by the master sculptor Phidias on the Parthenon sculptures in Athens.
The sculpture first surfaced in 1979 when two shepherds, the Campanella Brothers, reportedly found the sculpture just outside the archaeological site of Morgantina, Sicily after a rain storm. They sold it to a antiquities middleman, Orazio di Simone, of nearby Gela. The local head of a team of looters, Giuseppe Mascara, told authorities that it had been found not far from the location where his team discovered a large marble bust, which appeared to match the goddesses limestone body, and two small marble heads (see Demeter and Kore).
The body of the sculpture was reportedly too large to smuggle out of Italy, so di Simone had it broken it into three large pieces and smuggled with the large head north through Italy in the back of a produce truck loaded with carrots. By 1980, the sculpture was in Chiasso, Switzerland in the possession of a former Swiss border guard named Renzo Canavesi. Photos were later discovered showing the sculpture in pieces there before its restoration.
In 1986, Canavesi sold the sculpture to London antiquities dealer Robin Symes for USD $300,000. It was transported to Symes' London warehouse and reassembled. It is there that Getty antiquities curator Marion True first viewed the sculpture in 1987 and concluded it likely represented Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. She soon recommended the museum buy it.
"It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the proposed statue for this Museum or, indeed, any other collection in the world," she told the Getty board in her acquisition proposal. "Original stone sculpture from the 5th century BC came to be considered the acme of human artistic achievement by the Romans under the Empire, the Italians of the Renaissance, and ever succeeding Western society in various phases of Classical revival."
"The proposed statue of Aphrodite would not only become the single greatest pieces of ancient art in our collection; it would be the greatest piece of Classical sculpture in this country and any country outside of Greece and Great Britain," she concluded.
In fact, the statue would bring True and the Getty infamy and legal jeopardy.
In 1988, the Getty Museum bought the sculpture from Symes for the record-breaking sum of USD $18 million. It was the subject of immediate controversy inside the museum, as evidence suggested it had been recently looted. There was dirt still in the sculpture's folds, and the clean breaks in the body suggested it had been recently broken into pieces – a telltale sign of smuggling.
Italian authorities demanded the return of the statue soon after the Getty put it on display in 1988, but lacked evidence to prove their claim.
In 2006, Italy demanded the return of the Aphrodite again as part of its criminal investigation of Marion True's ties to Italian antiquities trafficking networks. A Greek investigation had also uncovered extensive evidence of Robin Symes' ties to trafficking networks in the region.
The Getty hired private detectives to interview Canavesi and were shown more than a dozen photos of the statue suggesting it had been recently smuggled, not in his family collection for decades, as he had claimed. The investigators also found evidence connecting Canavesi with Di Simone, who Italian authorities said was a Sicilian antiquities smuggler with ties to the Mafia.
The evidence convinced the Getty to settled its dispute with Italy in the fall of 2007 by agreeing to return 40 prominent objects from its antiquities collection, including the Aphrodite. In turn, Italy offered to loan the Getty about 50 comparable antiquities, part of a broader cultural collaboration between the parties.
In 2010, the sculpture was shipped back to Sicily, where is was installed in the archaeological museum in Aidone, just outside the archaeological site of Morgantina.
See Also
Number of Objects
1
Object Type
Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines
Culture
Greek
Museum Name
J. Paul Getty Museum
Museum Accession Number
JPGM 88.AA.76
Receiving Country
Italy
Sources
Getty and Italian Ministry of Culture Sign Agreement in Rome for the Return of Objects
http://www.getty.edu/news/press/center/italy_getty_joint_statement_080107.html
Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino
The Getty’s troubled goddess
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2007/jan/03/local/me-aphrodite3
Getty ships Aphrodite statue to Sicily
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-mar-23-la-et-return-of-aphrodite-20110323-story.html
Documents
Images
http://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F5uj7gGC23-A%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5uj7gGC23-A&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F5uj7gGC23-A%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=0f02dbbd193140989f30646f0bc10805&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube
MOLA Contributor(s)
Jason Felch
Peer Reviewed By
Damien Huffer
Citation
“The Getty Aphrodite,” Museum of Looted Antiquities, accessed October 14, 2024, https://mola.omeka.net/items/show/1200.