Marion True update

The trial in Rome has resumed. How long it will take is anyone's guess. Today's Telegraph has a summary of where things now stand. The following does seem to be a bit off, however:

On Monday, Miss True, the former head of antiquities at the Getty, was released from a Greek prison, after posting a £10,000 bail. However, she is not expected to appear in court in Italy. If she is convicted in either country, she faces up to 10 years in jail.

From what I've read, she was not in jail in Greece, though she was in court. The New York Times reported last week:

Appearing before an investigating magistrate and prosecutors, Marion True, the former antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, was ordered on Wednesday to post $19,500 in bail pending trial on charges that she conspired to buy an ancient funerary wreath that prosecutors say was illegally removed from Greek soil about 15 years ago.

The bail amount was set after a closed hourlong meeting at the magistrate’s office in which Ms. True submitted a 16-page defense and responded to prosecutors’ questions with the aid of her Greek lawyer. She has denied any wrongdoing. . .

Legal experts described the bail set for Ms. True on Wednesday as relatively modest, and the investigating magistrate, Apostolos Zavitsanos, said after the meeting that he did not consider her the greatest offender in the case.

“The wreath’s value of over a million dollars determined the nature of charges brought against Ms. True,” he said.

“The magna culprit of the case is not Ms. True,” he said, but “those facing the stiffest punishment for looting and selling the golden wreath.”

Although the question remains, where is the Greek government seeking to apply the most pressure?

She and her lawyers had been given about three weeks — a relatively short time in the Greek legal system — to prepare for the meeting, underlining the case’s importance for the Greek government and judiciary.

Posted by David on January 17, 2007 10:50 AM