Statue of Apollo
Object or Group Name
Statue of Apollo
Case Summary
In 1985, collector Maurice Tempelsman sold this statue of Apollo to the J. Paul Getty Museum for USD $2,500,000. The Museum acquired it along with two other objects (a ceremonial marble basin, or lekanis, and a sculpture of two griffins attacking a fallen deer) for a total of USD $10,200,000.
Tempelsman said he had purchased the objects from London dealer Robin Symes, but Getty officials were curious about where they had been found. In private correspondence in 1987, Getty acting antiquities curator Arthur Houghton said he had confirmed that the Italian trafficker Giacomo Medici had purchased all three objects from Italian looters in 1975 or 1976. The statue of Apollo and the lekanis had originated from the same tomb near Taranto, southern Italy, and that the griffins had been found in the ruins of a nearby villa, Medici told the Getty curator.
In a separate conversation with Houghton, American dealer Robert Hecht confirmed Medici’s account and added a new detail: the objects were looted from a "productive site" near Orta Nova, a town northwest of Taranto. After they were looted, the objects were transferred to Medici and Hecht, then to Symes before being sold to Tempelsman. The Getty kept the illicit origin of the three masterpieces a secret for decades, even amid questions about the objects from Italian authorities.
While searching Medici's warehouse in Geneva in 1995, Italian authorities seized Polaroids that showed the Apollo laying dirty on a board shortly after it had been looted. These images became important evidence during the 2005 criminal trafficking trial of Hecht, Medici and Getty curator Marion True, who succeeded Houghton in the position.
Getty attorneys discovered the memo from Houghton during an internal probe and decided not to provide them to Italian authorities. But the document was published by the Los Angeles Times along with other evidence that Getty officials had which proved objects they were acquiring from Hecht, Medici and Symes had been looted. The Getty Museum eventually agreed to return the Apollo along with dozens of other looted masterpieces in 2006.
Tempelsman said he had purchased the objects from London dealer Robin Symes, but Getty officials were curious about where they had been found. In private correspondence in 1987, Getty acting antiquities curator Arthur Houghton said he had confirmed that the Italian trafficker Giacomo Medici had purchased all three objects from Italian looters in 1975 or 1976. The statue of Apollo and the lekanis had originated from the same tomb near Taranto, southern Italy, and that the griffins had been found in the ruins of a nearby villa, Medici told the Getty curator.
In a separate conversation with Houghton, American dealer Robert Hecht confirmed Medici’s account and added a new detail: the objects were looted from a "productive site" near Orta Nova, a town northwest of Taranto. After they were looted, the objects were transferred to Medici and Hecht, then to Symes before being sold to Tempelsman. The Getty kept the illicit origin of the three masterpieces a secret for decades, even amid questions about the objects from Italian authorities.
While searching Medici's warehouse in Geneva in 1995, Italian authorities seized Polaroids that showed the Apollo laying dirty on a board shortly after it had been looted. These images became important evidence during the 2005 criminal trafficking trial of Hecht, Medici and Getty curator Marion True, who succeeded Houghton in the position.
Getty attorneys discovered the memo from Houghton during an internal probe and decided not to provide them to Italian authorities. But the document was published by the Los Angeles Times along with other evidence that Getty officials had which proved objects they were acquiring from Hecht, Medici and Symes had been looted. The Getty Museum eventually agreed to return the Apollo along with dozens of other looted masterpieces in 2006.
Number of Objects
1
Object Type
Sculpture
Culture
Greek
Private Collector
Maurice Tempelsman
Museum Name
J. Paul Getty Museum
Museum Accession Number
85.AA.108
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
J Paul Getty Museum Returns to Italy (2007)
http://traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/j-paul-getty-museum-returns-to-italy-2007/
Getty Had Signs It Was Acquiring Possibly Looted Art, Documents Show
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/25/local/me-getty25
Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum, pages 64-67.
Documents
(True 2002: 162; Watson and Todeschini 2007: 124-25; Godart and De Caro 2008: 230 no. 66).
Godart and De Caro 2007, 230–31, no. 66.
Images
https://palazzo.quirinale.it/mostre/2007_nostoi/foto_nostoi.html#&gid=1&pid=4
MOLA Contributor(s)
Travis Murphy
Peer Reviewed By
Vanessa Rousseau
VG
Citation
“Statue of Apollo,” Museum of Looted Antiquities, accessed October 14, 2024, https://mola.omeka.net/items/show/945.