Demeter and Persephone

Demeter and Persephone

In 1988, the J. Paul Getty Museum displayed these two marble busts, which were on loan to the museum from an anonymous private collection.

The "acroliths" were marble heads that would have sat on top of wooden sculptures garbed in robes representing the Greek goddesseses Demeter and her daughter Persephone in an ancient Greek temple .

Italian authorities almost immediately alleged that the heads had been looted from the ancient Greek site of Morgantina, in present day Sicily. Giuseppe Mascara, a Sicilian looter, had testified to Italian authorities that the two heads had been discovered with a third, slightly larger one in Morgantina in the late 1970s.

Investigators found supporting evidence that the three marble heads had been found by two shepherd brothers in 1979 after heavy rains had unearthed a ruined temple complex dedicated to Demeter and Persephone. Two of the heads were smaller in size and older than the third, which was later associated with the Getty's statue of Aphrodite. All three heads were also sold to local middleman Orazio di Simone for USD $1,000.

To track the sculptures down, Italian authorities asked for the help of Malcolm Bell, the University of Virginia archaeologist in charge of excavations in Morgantina. Bell learned that two similar heads had been put on display at the Getty, and sent a friend to photograph them. When Italian authorities showed the photos to Mascara, the looter confirmed they were the same smaller heads found in the late 1970s.

Italy made a claim for the sculptures on display at the Getty, but rather than return them the museum pulled the heads from display and returned them to the anonymous donor. They disappeared for years.

Investigators were eventually able to trace the path the heads took through the illicit antiquities market. The shepherds allegedly sold the heads and a large limestone sculpture to Orazio Di Simone, an alleged trafficker in nearby Gela, who had them smuggled to Switzerland and sold to London dealer Robin Symes. Symes in turn sold them to the New York antiquities collector Maurice Tempelsman, who was the Getty's anonymous donor.

In London, Symes joined the large limestone body with the largest of the three marble heads and sold it to the Getty as a rare cult statue of Aphrodite for USD$18 million.

The two smaller heads that the Getty had returned to Tempelsman resurfaced in 2002 at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, the result of secret negotiations for their return that Malcolm Bell had quietly been holding with Tempelsman.

After five years on display at UVA, they were returned to Italy in 2007 and are currently on display in the local archaeological museum next to Morgantina. The missing third head discovered with these two is believed to be the head of the Getty Aphrodite, which was likewise returned to Morgantina and is displayed there today.

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Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Greek

Maurice Templesman

J. Paul Getty Museum

The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia

Italy

Damien Huffer; Jason Felch

Jason Felch