Statement Regarding 2021 Return of Objects to Manhattan District Attorney’s Office

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office contacted the Getty in October 2020 to inquire about certain objects in our collection believed to have been handled by a one-time art dealer named Edoardo Almagià.

The District Attorney’s office later provided us detailed information about seven objects, including an Attic Red-Figure Stemless Kylix, two “White-on-Red” Ware Pithos, and two pairs of Etruscan terracotta plates. As we do in cases where new information is provided to us, we have voluntarily returned the objects. We have cooperated with the District Attorney’s office and have transferred the objects to the District Attorney’s office for eventual repatriation to Italy.

Most of the objects being deaccessioned were accepted as gifts to Getty 25 years ago; one was purchased by Getty in 1986. Whenever new information about the provenance of objects comes to the attention of Getty, we conduct a thorough review and return objects if warranted by those new findings. When the Manhattan District Attorney shared new information with us, we cooperated fully in their investigation.

For decades, Getty has worked closely with Italian colleagues in conserving, protecting, researching and celebrating Italy’s extraordinary cultural heritage. The Getty Foundation has supported 145 grant projects on Italian art totaling more than $21 million, awarded nearly $600,000 in fellowships to Italian scholars, and hosted more than 140 Italian scholars, fellows, and interns supported by grants totaling almost $1.5 million. Since 1984, the Getty Museum has lent more than 130 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and other works of art to over 50 institutions in Italy. Similarly, the Getty Research Institute (GRI) has, since 1991, lent more than 700 prints, drawings, manuscripts, and rare books to exhibitions in Italy.

Getty has presented more than two dozen exhibitions in collaboration with institutions in Italy, a number of them arising from cultural agreements between Getty and the Italian Ministry of Heritage, Culture and Tourism, the Sicilian Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Musei Capitolini, Rome, and the Museum of Aidone. As part of these collaborations, Getty undertook the conservation of five highly significant works of ancient art and a collection of 37 votive offerings, all belonging to Italian museums.

Other collaborative efforts have included decades-long research and conservation projects funded and coordinated by Getty, including the Panel Paintings Initiative, Mosaikon, Herculaneum fresco restoration, Keeping it Modern, and many others.

Objects Returned