Thursday,
July 26, 2007
Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli Gets Tough with Getty over "Victorious Youth"
+ 46 Artifacts
The
ANNOTICO Report
Times
critic Christopher Knight naively acts as if "Dramatic Photo Opps" are an Italian invention, which is a little
incredulous him living in "Hollywood", where All the Entertainers pay
PR firms big Bucks to get them "noticed" All the time.
Knight
is either disingenuous or not very well informed since while he recognizes that
the "Victorious Youth" that the Italian Government is demanding
to be returned to Italy, Knight seems to be unaware that for so long US Museums
did not seriously question the provence of
Antiquities, and ignored the wholesale "Looting" that was going on.
Very
Unlawful and Very Unethical, If you come to Court with " Dirty Hands" Best Not to Question
others Legality, Morality, and Ethics. !!!
Knight
claims Fishermen found the barnacle-encrusted statue "Victorious
Youth" in international waters in 1964. End of story.
Yet
Knight well knows that the fisherman were from the Adriatic coastal town
of
But
does Knight have any awareness of ”The Laws of
the Seas- Internal and International Waters".
This
is important, since one question is exactly where did the fisherman
FIND the statute, By 1967 only 25 nations still used the old three nautical
miles limit, 66 nations had set a 12 nautical miles Territorial Limit,.
However Beyond the 12 nautical mile limit there is an additional
12 nautical miles or 24 nautical miles from the territorial sea
baselines limit, "the Contiguous
Zone", in which area a state could continue to
enforce laws regarding activities such as smuggling or illegal
immigration.
In
1945 President Truman extended
Where
exactly were the fishermen, how deep is the water, and how were they able to
ensnare the statute in their fishing nets, when the statute usually would be
silted over. Incidentally the
I
find the fisherman's case weak, but even for arguments sake, if that is true,
And
I would argue also that is was being shipped between two parts of the Roman
Empire at that time, most probably from
Even
though the "Victorious Youth" is unquestionable Roman, and therefore
is an Italian artifact, and it wasn't found off
Knight
hilarious argument is: Since America is as much a descendant of ideals forged
in ancient
Christopher
did you ever study Logic? Do you know what a Non Sequitur is? You are way
off base!!!!!
Just
because you "borrowed" Roman Judicial System, the Republic, their
Aqueducts, their Engineering, their Road system, etc, the Getty is
entitled to cause their shady dealers to pick up whatever Roman
Artifacts that the Getty wants????? Really????
By
Christopher Knight
July 25, 2007
In
March, Italian senator Paolo Amato joined placard-waving citizens furious over
the removal of an iconic painting from
The stunt was the dramatic, even operatic conclusion to a noisy conflict raging
for weeks among politicians and the public. In contrast to the
If you want to understand how conspicuous, try this: Imagine Sen. Charles E.
Schumer (D-N.Y.) chaining himself to the gates of New York's Metropolitan
Museum to protest the loan of Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the
Delaware" to a foreign museum.
Unimaginable? That's the point. The brawl over the
Leonardo loan was overwro ught,
but in
I cite this recent cultural dust-up because it goes a long way toward
explaining the otherwise bizarre behavior of Francesco Rutelli.
He's the ambitious, telegenic former mayor of
Earlier this month, Rutelli issued an ultimatum to
the Getty Trust. For years the Getty has been engaged in seesawing negotiations
over disputed title to antiquities in its museum collection. Nine months ago,
the Getty offered to return 26 works to
No deal, Rutelli said. And by the way, fork over the
famous Getty Bronze by July 31 -- that's next week -- or
The threatened boycott is largely symbolic, since only modest interact ion
exists now. But it means no loans of art, new or old, from Italian public
collections to any Getty exhibitions. It means no cooperation on research or
conservation projects.
To avoid the snub, Rutelli wants 47 objects turned
over immediately -- including the Classical Greek statue of a "Victorious
Youth." The exquisite sculpture has been the Getty's crown jewel for 30
years.
Virtually no one expects the Getty Bronze to be handed over -- not next week,
not ever. Why? Simple:
The legal case is virtually nonexistent. Fishermen found the barnacle-encrusted
statue in international waters in 1964. End of story. Even Rutelli
knows that. In a Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal opinion article, tightening the
screws, the culture minister wrote, "This is not a legal question, but a
question of ethics."
He didn't elaborate on the moral claim -- because, I suspect, nothing but raw
emotionalism backs it up. The bron ze is probably of 4th-2nd century BC origin. (Some say the
sculptor Lysippos, favorite of Alexander the Great,
created it, though the Getty doesn't maintain that.) Since
So what gives? Why is Rutelli saying, in effect,
"My way or the highway"?
Look to recent Italian politics for the answer.
In that same Journal article, Rutelli also wrote,
"This is not a political battle with the Getty." He's right. Instead,
it's a political battle raging inside
Rutelli, 53, is a depu ty in the center-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a close political ally for two decades. Prodi's coalition government has been shaky since he
narrowly defeated Silvio Berlusconi in May 2006; just
nine months later, a full-scale crisis erupted. Prodi
quit in February, quickly shored up a new coalition and regained office in
March.
What was the crisis about? Italian foreign policy --
specifically, support for the
The flash point was Prodi's advocacy for the
controversial expansion of an American Army base in
Rutelli's escalating anti-Getty posturing is old-fas hioned political demagoguery,
pitched to voters back home. The ultimatum symbolically proclaims that powerful
American interests cannot push
Rutelli, who is married to the successful RAI
television journalist Barbara Palombelli, is
media-savvy. He's a former client of the American strategic polling whiz
Stanley Greenberg, who also advised
So we shouldn't be surprised that the minister's final warning earlier this
month was delivered during a visit to a newly restored church in the Adriatic
coastal town of
Prior to the razor-thin election of the Prodi
government, the Getty h ad been making headway in its negotiations with
That includes Rutelli. His ultimatum won't stop art
smuggling or end the looting of archeological treasures by nocturnal tomb
raiders.
But if the deputy prime minister does want to go after his country's top job in
the future -- something he tried to achieve in 2001 -- it won't hurt to have an
established public profile as an outspoken champion of Italy's cultural
patrimony, however bogus the details. For Rutelli,
chaining himself to the Getty Bronze is a winning political stunt.
What can the Getty do about Italian politics? Not much. But given intractable
circumstances, perhaps it's time for some back-channel intervention from the
christopher.knight@ latimes.com
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