The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favor of Italy on Thursday in its dispute with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, over the ownership of a bronze Greek statue discovered 60 years ago by Italian fishermen. The body confirmed the decision of the Italian justice system to “confiscate” the statue, known as “Victorious Youth”, purchased in 1977 by the Getty Museum, which has always refused to return it.
Named Victorious Youth by the Americans, the statue was discovered in 1964 in the Adriatic Sea by fishermen off the coast of Fano (in Marche). It was said to have been sold immediately, changing hands several times before the Italian state could exercise its right of pre-emption. The work, which represents a naked athlete (or the Macedonian prince Demetrius Poliorcetes, according to some), resurfaced on the art market in 1974 and was then acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum for 3.9 million dollars of the time. Attributed to the Greek sculptor Lysippus, it is today exhibited at the Getty Villa, on the heights of the ultra-chic Pacific Palisades district.
The Getty Foundation seized the ECHR in 2019 to challenge the confiscation decision of the Italian courts, considering, among other things, that the statue did not fall within Italian heritage. But in a ruling, the Court, which sits in Strasbourg, rejected the American museum’s request, finding that “the Italian authorities have reasonably demonstrated that the statue was part of the Italian cultural heritage.” “The purchaser of property must carefully verify its origin to avoid possible confiscation measures,” recall the judges. However, “by purchasing the statue in the absence of any proof that its provenance was legitimate and in full knowledge of the claims made by the Italian authorities with regard to it”, the Getty Foundation “disregarded the legal requirements, at least by negligence, or perhaps bad faith.”
The dispute between Italy and the Getty Museum is old. In August 2007, the museum and Italy announced an agreement on the restitution of 42 antiquities that Rome claimed had been stolen and then illegally exported. Founded by oil billionaire John Paul Getty, the Getty Museum is backed by the richest art foundation in the world, whose assets were valued in 2009 at several billion dollars.