BOSTON (AP) – The Museum of Fine Arts has reached a tentative agreement to return antiquities Italian authorities say were stolen and later sold to the museum.
In a joint statement released Thursday, the MFA and the Italian Ministry of Culture said officials from both groups met in Rome this week and made “significant progress” toward a final agreement to transfer “certain objects of Italian origin” in the museum’s collection to Italy.
Italian authorities said earlier this year that they were trying to secure the return of at least two dozen objects – including a vase, a jar and a statue – from the MFA as part of their effort to recover artworks they claim were stolen and sold to museums around the world.
In February, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art agreed to return 21 looted artifacts to Italy in exchange for loans of other treasures.
In the joint statement, the MFA and Italian Ministry of Culture said their tentative agreement calls for a similar loan of “significant works”‘ from Italy to the MFA’s displays and special exhibitions program.
Kelly Gifford, a spokeswoman for the MFA, would not comment beyond the prepared statement.
An official from the Italian Culture Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement included a secrecy clause barring either side from revealing the objects to be returned to Rome.
At least one of the objects is tied to the probe that led to the 2004 conviction of Giacomo Medici, an Italian antiquities dealer whose warehouse in Switzerland was found to have items authorities claim were spirited out of Italy illegally, the official said, declining to give further details.
DePaul University law professor Patty Gerstenblith, who specializes in cultural property law, said such agreements help the museums, from both a legal and public relations standpoint.
“The museums have a choice – they can go through negative publicity, they can go through the threat of a lawsuit, or they can reach this agreement, which makes them look good,” Gerstenblith said.
“It’s positive because you can, in fact, get much more from a cultural exchange through a cooperative agreement than you can from buying on the market,” she said.
Officials from the MFA, including Museum Director Malcolm Rogers and Deputy Director Katherine Getchell, had their first meeting in Rome in May. The same officials met with Italian officials for a second time on Tuesday, Gifford said.
Both meetings took place as the trial of former J. Paul Getty Museum curator Marion True and art dealer Robert Hecht continues in Rome. True and Hecht are accused of participating in a smuggling ring that placed artwork taken from Italy in American museums, including the MFA. Both have denied wrongdoing.
AP-ES-07-27-06 1851EDT
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