Chasing Aphrodite (50 page)

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Erichsen was satisfied:
In his July 30, 2008, written statement, Erichsen said that True was interviewed about the loan in Gribbon's office and "flatly and without elaboration denied the loan's existence." Given the earlier warning she had received from Walsh, Erichsen added, "Dr. True could not have failed to understand the significance which the Getty would attach to the matter. If Dr. Gribbon or I did not ask follow-up questions, our failure to do so pales in comparison to Dr. True's disingenuousness in answering the basic question so misleadingly."

17: R
OGUE
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USEUMS

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an international arrest warrant:
Interview with Paolo Ferri. Apparently, Frieda Tchakos thought that Cyprus wouldn't honor the warrant.
an unrelated looting case:
The Carabinieri had traced a looted white marble statue of Artemis to Tchakos's gallery in Zurich. When the dealer balked at cooperating with the Italians, Ferri issued an arrest warrant and sought extradition—a move that finally shook the statue loose. Although Ferri dropped the extradition request, he refused to drop the arrest warrant unless Tchakos provided information about the illicit antiquities market.
"
I won't pull":
Interview with Ferri.
coolly answering questions:
Tchakos's 2002 deposition.

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The strange thing:
In an e-mail to the authors, Barbara Fleischman disagreed with Tchakos's characterization, saying that her husband had bought several Cycladic pieces.
But Ferri believed:
True and Fleischman have both adamantly denied that the collection was a front for the Getty. Both have said that they were introduced in the early 1990s. In his 2004 deposition, John Walsh testified that he had introduced True to the couple at a Getty symposium in 1991, by which time the Fleischmans had already acquired most of their collection. All three accounts are incorrect. The authors learned that True first met the couple at least five years earlier, in the mid-1980s, in the midst of their most active collecting. The Fleischmans' daughter, Martha Fleischman, president of the Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan, confirmed the earlier date in an e-mail to the authors: "I discussed this with my mother who looked at her book and realized that 1991 was actually the year that Marion True had asked to do an exhibition of their collection. My mother said that this date had just stuck in her mind, but that the first meeting must have been around 1986 or so."
"
I believe that":
Symes's 2003 deposition.

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In an interview:
Hugh Eakin, "Looted Antiquities?"
ARTnews,
October 2002.

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 "
If an American conspired":
Judge Jed S. Rakoff's 2002 ruling in
United States v. Schultz.

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The Met director was shaken:
In the authors' interview with Met spokesman Harold Holzer, who accompanied de Montebello to the
New York Times
meeting, Holzer said that the director was "surprised" at both the ardor and the nationalistic views of board members, some of whom were or had been foreign correspondents. De Montebello, who retired in 2008, declined to be interviewed for this book.
A subsequent editorial:
"Return the Parthenon Marbles," editorial,
New York Times,
February 2, 2002.
an interview with Dietrich von Bothmer:
The content of Ferri's rogatory is from Ferri's e-mail to the authors. Ferri considered von Bothmer to be the "godfather," or hub, of the looted antiquities trade in America. Prior to von Bothmer's death in October 2009, his representatives declined interview requests, citing his failing health.

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it was no longer:
Insiders credit Met general counsel Sharon Cott with bringing de Montebello to the conclusion that his demands were extreme and the Met had to give back suspect objects or face the fate of the Getty. Cott declined the authors' request for a comment.
de Montebello sent invitations:
This account of the meeting is from interviews with two participants, a copy of de Montebello's invitation letter, and other written materials presented at the meeting. On hand for the discussion were James Wood of the Art Institute of Chicago and his outside counsel, Thad Stauber; Katharine Lee Reid of the Cleveland Museum of Art and her outside attorney, Josh Knerly; and Debbie Gribbon and Penny Cobey.

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 "
I'm here to propose":
The descriptions of the meeting and the "off-the-record chat" afterward are based on accounts provided by Itali an participants in both conversations, a member of the Getty team, and Peter Erichsen's November 1, 2002, timeline of events related to the Italian case, which summarizes the meetings. The timeline was part of Erichsen's November 5, 2002, briefing paper to the Getty board's executive committee (see chapter 18). In his July 30, 2008, written statement, Erichsen described the meeting as "entirely businesslike." He said that the side meeting did not include a "settlement offer" and "was intended to be a way of cooperating with the Italian authorities to develop evidence relating to the provenance of objects; this we repeatedly and politely did."

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If the Getty was willing:
Erichsen's November 5, 2002, briefing paper to the Getty board's executive committee.

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Erichsen summarized:
An October 9, 2002, draft of Erichsen's memo to Munitz titled "The Carabinieri's Submissions as to Six Objects in the Getty's Collection." In the draft memo, Erichsen said that the Carabinieri had "for the first time explicitly stated that a 'good faith gesture' involving the return of three to five objects might lead to a favorable resolution of the investigation of Marion True." He said that the Italian evidence was in many cases "arresting" but did "not compel a decision to return." He noted, however, that "any decision we make must be considered against the background of a decade of policy pronouncements by Getty curators of their unwillingness to retain objects convincingly claimed by Italy as cultural patrimony."

18: T
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EIGN OF
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UNITZ

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had plummeted $2 billion:
From $5.8 billion in 2000 to $3.8 billion in September 2002.

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Munitz's own profligate use:
Details about Munitz's use of Getty resources are based on internal Getty records and were first published in a
Los Angeles Times
investigation of Munitz in June 2005. The information was later verified by an internal Getty investigation and by investigators for the California attorney general, who in October 2006 found that Munitz had violated laws against using charitable resources for personal gain.
an absentee CEO:
On various occasions, Munitz has defended his actions, saying that the Getty board knew about and approved all his trips and expenses, and in fact granted him several perks in his contract, including first-class travel with his wife. He has said that the board encouraged his extensive time away from the office to develop outside institutional and fundraising support. As for personal use of Getty staff, Munitz has said that he initially tracked and paid taxes for services as added income, but when the Getty switched accounting systems, he stopped tracking them. Working from home, he has said, allowed him time to reflect and be more productive.

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 she had to run:
Indeed, the quirky Getty administrative structure removed the museum director from dealing directly with the trustees, unlike at the Met and other major museums, where the director called the shots. Museum world insiders considered the reporting structure at the Getty a major drawback of the director's job.

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True called Fleischman:
Interviews with Barbara Fleischman. True's desire to talk to Munitz was awkward because she didn't report directly to the CEO, but to her institutional adversary, Debbie Gribbon. At the urging of board members, Munitz eventually changed the line of authority so that True reported directly to him about the villa reconstruction.

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 "
I want you to know":
As recounted in Munitz's letter to David Gardner dated October 15, 2002, and in interviews with Gardner.

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He spent hours:
Ibid. In an interview by the authors, one Getty official described Munitz as being obsessed with the letter.
The Italian investigation:
This account of the November 2002 conference call and January 2003 board briefing is based on interviews with participants, various drafts of briefing papers presented to the board, and notes taken by a participant during the conference call. In his written statement to the authors, Erichsen said, "I made an effort at all times to provide the Board with as full a description of the Italian controversy as I could." Each of his dozen major briefings "was discussed in advance and in detail with Dr. Munitz and, frequently, board leadership."

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All the references:
The executive committee was resigned to the fact that the briefing document, no matter how carefully guarded, would eventually be leaked or could be discoverable in court proceedings. According to one former Getty official with knowledge of the conference call, Kaplan also removed anything that seemed to point the finger at Gribbon from the document.
The precautions worked:
In an interview by the authors, a member of Munitz's management team claimed that they first alerted the board about "troubling" documents in March 2001 and provided updates at every regular meeting. The authors found no documents to support this assertion.
Erichsen's presentation dwelt:
Copies of Erichsen's November 2002 briefing papers and interviews with two former Getty officials. Board members, John Biggs in particular, wondered whether True would strike a plea bargain in which she turned against Gribbon, John Walsh, Harold Williams, and the trustees. "What are we going to do when we get the call she's sitting on a beach in Brazil and they [the Italians] are now turning their attention to the people higher up the chain?" one source quoted Biggs as saying. Interview with a former Getty official and Biggs, who confirmed his concern.

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not just a Getty issue:
The Italians made no secret that their legal strike against True was the first volley in a "coast to coast" campaign to "systematically scour ... every major collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities in the United States" and recover those that had been looted. Their targets included the Met, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Princeton University Art Museum. Eakin, "Looted Antiquities?"

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 "
It's just like Nuremberg":
Interview with a Getty official who attended the meeting.
The board was reluctant:
As one former Getty official told the authors, board members were worried about taking a public stand only to have emerging facts about True undercut them.
"
I agree ... completely":
From a copy of Erichsen's transcribed voice-mail messages. Kaplan declined the authors' requests for an interview.

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Gardner was stunned:
This account of Gardner's conversations with Munitz and other board members is based on interviews with Gardner and two former Getty officials.
He set up a meeting:
This account is based on interviews with two former Getty officials.

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Gardner, meanwhile, was lobbying:
Munitz's letter to Gardner, January 2004; interviews with Gardner.
The payoff came:
This account is based on interviews with Gardner and one other participant in the closed-session meeting.

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turning the screws:
This account of Munitz's barrage of criticism and the April 2004 board meeting is based on interviews with two former Getty officials and copies of Munitz's "performance review" for Gribbon.

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he flogged the tearful:
This account is based on Munitz's nine-page follow-up letter to Gribbon and interviews with two former Getty officials.
She was sanguine:
Interview with a former high-ranking Getty official.

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Then, on September 21:
The account of this episode is based on interviews with Biggs and two former Getty officials. Gribbon, most recently interim director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, declined comment.

19: T
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OOLS'
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AY
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NDICTMENT

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 "
They are trying":
A claim the middleman made in interviews with reporters. The description of Giacomo Medici is based on the authors' observations.
five months to write:
A telling fact about the complexities of the case, since the usual amount of time allowed for judicial decisions is three months.
He sentenced Medici:
The sentence was held in abeyance pending Medici's appeal. The fine was paid in part by the seizure of the dealer's rambling and garishly colored villa in Santa Marinella. In July 2009, an Italt an appellate court upheld Medici's sentence, but he appealed to the supreme court. Because he is now over seventy, he is exempt from having to serve any prison time.

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who had successfully defended:
Coppi led a defense team that eventually won acquittal of the seven-time prime minister on charges that he had close associations with the Mafia and had ordered the murder of an investigative journalist who was on the verge of exposing those connections. The case is considered one of the most important post—World War II political trials in Italy.
"
Did Marion True":
Fleischman's 2004 deposition.

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a little black book":
Ferri had taken copies of the book, which he returned to Fleischman's lawyers. He never used the information in the trial.
During the next day's:
Walsh's 2004 deposition.
the deposition of Karol Wight:
Karol Wight, deposition before Paolo Ferri and Guglielmo Muntoni, Los Angeles, September 23, 2004.