GETTY RETURNS ORPHEUS and the SIRENS
Another triumph for Italy's Ministry of Culture – the recent return of the 5th century BC Greek sculpture group of “Orpheus and the Sirens,” purchased illegally by the Getty Museum from a Swiss dealer in 1976.
The group, an Ancient Greek masterpiece dated to the 4th century BC, was discovered during an illicit dig in the area of Taranto (Puglia) and smuggled into Switzerland where it was offered to the Getty Museum for sale. The group is almost life size and features a seated male figure originally holding a lyre and two somewhat hefty mermaids with birds' bodies in their traditional form as spirits of the World of the Dead.
The Getty Museum, through its legal office, has recognized that the sculptures had been exported illegally out of Italy. The group was returned to Rome on the 17th September 2022 and is temporarily on view in the new Museo dell'Arte Salvata (Museum of Rescued Art) inside the Baths of Diocletian complex until the 15th October 2022, when it will be returned to its original home in Taranto.
The Getty is actively collaborating with the Italian government regarding the identification and restitution of antiquities of doubtful provenance in its collection. The Museum, however, is reluctant to part with the magnificent “Victorious Youth”, one of the stars of its collection, which was fished out of the Adriatic sea by fishermen in 1964. Italy has been demanding its return for many years. The Getty Museum, however, claims that the sculpture, attributed to Lysippos, was found in international waters and therefore does not legally belong to Italy.
M. STENHOUSE
