Marion True now charged in Greece as well

Trouble enough in Italy; now the Greeks are getting theirs in, too:

A Greek prosecutor on Tuesday charged a former curator of the American J. Paul Getty Museum with knowingly buying an ancient artifact which had been illegally dug up and smuggled out of Greece 13 years ago. . .

In the Greek investigation, police raided her Aegean island villa earlier this year and retrieved what authorities say are dozens of unregistered ancient objects.

From the lack of previous charges, however, these probably didn't add up to much -- though one wonders if the Greek police also seized personal records. The new charge, however, isn't so much against True personally, as against the Getty.

"True as well as two Greeks and two other foreigners have been charged with removing, accepting and distributing products resulting from criminal actions," a police source told Reuters.

"They are charged in connection with the golden wreath which was sold to a Getty representative in 1993 for $1.15 million."

The source said police believe an ancient Macedonian tomb was excavated some time between 1990-2 and it was then that the wreath was found and illegally removed.

From Reuters. More on the same story in the LA Times, including this:

The senior Greek official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak about the case, said that in addition to True, the investigation recommended charges against [Christoph] Leon, the Basel dealer; L.J. Kovacevic, a Yugoslav national; and Georgios Tsatalis and Georgios Kagias, Greek citizens.

Greek police raided True's house on the Greek island of Paros last March and found several unregistered antiquities -- many of which were fragmentary and of little value. No charges have been filed in that case and the investigation continues.

Posted by David on November 23, 2006 3:53 PM