Chasing Aphrodite (51 page)

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During a break:
In interviews, Ferri said that he took umbrage when Martin reportedly accused the prosecutor of being ignorant of Italian legal procedures.
Erichsen advised:
Erichsen's July 30, 2008, written statement; interviews with two Getty officials who attended the meeting.
Muntoni's steely contrariness:
During the trip to America, Muntoni had refused to dine with Ferri and others in the Itali an contingent until the last night, when the final deposition was finished. Even then he remained inscrutable.

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On a Sunday afternoon:
This scene is drawn from interviews with Ferri.
a certain Greek vase:
The Getty catalogue of the Fleischman collection noted that the piece had been in a 1988 catalogue for Atlantis Antiquities, a gallery partly owned by Hecht. Through her daughter, Barbara Fleischman told the authors the invoice for the vase was dated and paid in 1988.
Fleischman claimed:
Ferri didn't know it at the time, but True and the Fleischmans had actually met two years before the Greek vase was purchased. See chapter 17, note 6.
how could Larry Fleischman:
Barbara Fleischman and her daughter, Martha Fleischman, declined to be interviewed on this and other important points of Ferri's theory.

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Hecht volunteered spontaneously:
In an interview for this book, Muntoni said that he still wonders why Hecht made the remark. "In this way, he was destroying the cover story which defended Marion True ... He just volunteered it." Although True and Martha Fleischman declined to be interviewed for this book, both have publicly refuted Ferri's assertion that the collection was a "front" intended to launder looted pieces for the Getty. After the
Art Newspaper
printed the allegation in April 2008 as part of its report on a court proceeding, True sent a strongly worded letter to the editor saying, "Your article repeats utterly false accusations without analysis or providing an opportunity for a response. Doing so is unfair not only to me, but to two collectors who were dedicated for decades to the support and strengthening of museums not only in America but in England and Italy as well." Martha Fleischman wrote, "The image of my mother, in cahoots with Dr Marion True, conspiring to muddy the waters of provenance, would suggest a hilarious screenplay if this trial were not so vicious in tactics and destructive in effect." Both letters appeared in the May 2008 issue of the
Art Newspaper
and are available at
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Letters-to-the-editor%20/8470
.
In a final bid:
This account is based on True's 2005 testimony and interviews with Ferri and Muntoni.

259 "
Probably nothing":
True wrote to the authors, "I did not propose returning them as the provenance provided by Medici was contradicted by the opinion of Janos Szilagy. Szilagy was considered a more reliable expert. Many dealers claim knowledge of provenance without evidence."
"
I'm sorry":
Muntoni, who started out unconvinced that True was part of a conspiracy, later pointed to this moment as decisive. Even then, he regarded the curator as a good person who may have wanted to change things but was trapped in a job that was dependent on acquiring looted antiquities. Interview with Muntoni.

20: L
IFESTYLES OF THE
R
ICH AND
F
AMOUS

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a series of investigative stories:
The stories on Munitz were reported and written by Jason Felch, Robin Fields, and Louise Roug. Stories about the antiquities scandal were reported and written by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino. The account of internal Getty reaction to the series is based on interviews with former Getty officials.

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recently tried to recruit:
Months before, Olson had turned down a Getty board appointment after the trustees failed to heed his recommendation to form an internal committee to investigate the allegations about Munitz coming out in the
Los Angeles Times.
Interview with someone with knowledge of the discussions.

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 "
You're in trouble here":
This account is based on interviews with two former Getty officials and Biggs. The former Getty officials also told the authors that Olson warned Bryson that she or other board members could go to jail—a statement Olson declined to discuss with the authors because of attorney-client privilege. Bryson, who stepped down as board chair in 2010, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. Getty records show that MTO immediately began investigating the liability of trustees and the criminal liability the Getty faced under federal law prohibiting the receipt of public goods.
As if to underscore:
In California, the attorney general is responsible for regulating charitable trusts that are registered in the state and can take legal action if the assets—considered public because they are tax-exempt—are used for personal gain.

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hired a crisis management firm:
The Getty hired Sitrick and Company, a Los Angeles—based firm specializing in "crisis communications." One of the first things Sitrick suggested was that Munitz announce an investigation into the leak of the documents, thus shutting down the
Times'
sources. Getty officials decided against this tactic. Sitrick also urged the Getty to engage the newspaper, but Munitz refused. The Getty ended up paying Sitrick $750,000 for largely unheeded advice, according to a Sitrick executive, a former Getty official, and Getty records.
Munitz called True:
These accounts of the meeting between Munitz and True and of Munitz's conversation with Fleischman are based on interviews with a former Getty official and someone familiar with the subsequent MTO investigation into the loan. Munitz wasn't the only one who was worried about the loan. Erichsen also was reportedly upset by True's refusal to name the lenders and repeatedly called her to demand their identities. Interview with a former Getty official.
True said that Gribbon:
An alternative account from Barbara Fleischman had Debbie Gribbon and Peter Erichsen approaching True informally at a cocktail party to ask casually about the loan.
Racing home to change:
This account is based on an interview with someone familiar with the episode, which was part of the later investigation into True's loan.

265
The curator appeared:
Details of this discussion come from Biggs and a former Getty official familiar with the conversation. The former Getty official also claimed that Olson advised the Getty to fire True if she had not disclosed the loan and was upset to hear later that Biggs had allowed her to "retire."

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For the first time: Los Angeles Times,
October 4 and November 11, 2005.
Flavia Zisa:
A close friend of True's, Zisa happened to show up to talk to the Getty the day True was told she had to resign or be fired. Zisa found out what had happened when she went to True's Santa Monica condo and found the distraught curator in tears.
in New York:
The occasion that brought the men together was the opening of a Met exhibit on Antonello da Messina, Sicily's most famous Renaissance painter. Also in attendance at the meeting was Luis Li, the MTO attorney who was in charge of the firm's investigation into Italian claims against Getty antiquities. This account of the meeting between Munitz and Pagano is based on Getty documents and interviews with Alessandro Pagano, Flavia Zisa, and a former Getty official.

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But the talks grew cold:
The Sicilians wanted Munitz to take quick action because Pagano was facing reelection in two months. Pagano won the election, but Munitz was ousted, and the talks formally died. Interviews and e-mail exchanges with Luis Li, Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig, and Flavia Zisa.
Erichsen and others feared:
Interviews with Li and Hartwig.
board was backing away:
"This puts the board chair and vice chair in the driver's seat, looking at policy issues independent of the management of the Getty," board member Ramon Cortines told the authors.

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delicate matters:
Munitz's spending related to Nana Zhvitiashvili and Iris Mickein raised eyebrows among members of the board, but the authors found no evidence that the relationships were sexual. Rather, people close to Munitz said that he had a penchant for mentoring talented young women, lavishing them with attention and support in an almost fatherly way, much as he had with his chief of staff, Jill Murphy.
Munitz even offered:
Copies of Munitz's correspondence with Zhvitiashvili.
The intern showed up:
Interview with a former high-ranking Getty official.
He later arranged:
Munitz's memo to John Elderfield, MoMAs chief curator of painting and sculpture, dated February 24, 2003.

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The final break:
This account of Munitz's conversation with Murphy is based on an interview with a former Getty official.

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Fleischman wasn't about:
The account of Fleischman's speech to the board is based on a copy of her seven-page statement and interviews with two former high-ranking Getty officials who attended the board meeting.

21: T
RUE
B
ELIEVERS

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the Getty Villa's public debut:
The morning of the opening, the
Los Angeles Times
ran an article with the headline "Getty Official in Italy for Talks on Contested Art; As the museum opening nears, its director begins a 'dialogue' on rights to antiquities. Ex-curator is accused of conspiring to receive looted items."

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All these touches:
"Marion True was the driving force behind the villa. It became her, as far as I could tell ... It was her main dream and total commitment to make the villa a reality, so she was the force that kept moving the ball forward—the planning, the design, the programmatic concepts." Interview with a former high-ranking Getty official.

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the few thousand antiquities:
Even with the extra room, the Getty Villa could display only about half of the twenty-five hundred antiquities considered to be of museum quality.

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the perfect proxy:
Ferri said that his legal case wasn't about retrieving priceless art objects for Italy, where museum warehouses are stuffed with superior pieces. "That's not the battle we are conducting," he told the authors. "We are conducting another battle. We are saying to the museums ... stop acquiring, and that means stop looting." He also said that he intended the Aphrodite to be a "symbol" of the battle and had added it to the Getty demand list at the last minute "to make a bang."

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Li had cut his teeth:
Li's most noteworthy case was the successful prosecution of former Los Angeles Rams cornerback Darryl Henley, who in 1997 was sentenced to forty-one years in prison for drug-related offenses and plotting the murder of a witness and federal judge in his drug trial.

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Brand, Li, and the rest:
This account of the Getty's negotiations with the Italians is based on interviews with Luis Li, Michael Brand, Maurizio Fiorilli, Giuseppe Proietti, Rocco Buttiglione, Daniela Rizzo, and others.

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A week later:
This account is based on Getty records and interviews with John Biggs and other board members present at the meeting.
In the end:
This account is based on interviews with Biggs and a former Getty official. Munitz had already seen the writing on the wall. Weeks before his firing, he had met for lunch with California attorney general Bill Lockyer to say that he would be stepping down and to mull over his professional options. Lockyer, whose office was still investigating Munitz, later denied that his private talk with Munitz was improper or changed the outcome of his inquiry, which concluded that Munitz and the Getty board had misused trust money but imposed no sanctions.

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"
incontrovertible evidence":
Several knowledgeable insiders credit Met general counsel Sharon Cott with nudging de Montebello toward the realization that the Italians didn't have to meet such a high standard. De Montebello declined to be interviewed for this book.
de Montebello privately regarded:
This account is based on an interview with the East Coast museum director in whom de Montebello confided at the West Palm Beach meeting.

285
In a speech before:
Transcript of de Montebello's speech at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., April 17, 2006.

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It was highly unlikely:
Interview with the Swiss private detective and internal Getty records.
had ties to organized crime:
Orazio di Simone denied this in the authors' interview with him in Rome.

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 "
dangerous people":
Interview with a former Getty official who attended the meeting.

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Two trustees pushed back:
Former and current Getty officials identified the trustees as Jay Wintrob and Peter J. Taylor, managing director for the Los Angeles branch of Lehman Brothers.
Greece had a new:
This account is based on interviews with Brand and Li.

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In a bitter letter:
True sent the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the authors, on December 18, 2006. It was addressed to Deborah Marrow, interim CEO of the Getty Trust after Munitz's resignation; Michael Brand; and Ron Hartwig.
the new minister turned:
Interviews with Francesco Rutelli, Brand, Li, Hartwig, and Filippo Sensi, former official with the Italian Ministry of Culture.

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Within hours:
This account is based on interviews with Li, Hartwig, Fiorilli, Rutelli, and Sensi. MTO attorneys deny taking a "commercial" view of the negotiations, as Fiorilli suggested. Getty records show that they were paid hourly for their work.

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"
When we acquired":
Interview with Malcolm Rogers at the return ceremony in Rome.