Getty Museum statue transfer ends Italy dispute

Italy's decade-old campaign to retrieve antiquities it says were illegally brought to California will end early next year.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will return to Sicily a fifth century B.C. statue of the goddess Aphrodite, the last of 40 artefacts it agreed to return as a result of Italy's campaign. Sebastiano Missineo, the Minister of Culture from Sicily, visited the Getty Villa in Malibu on December 6 and viewed the statue. He also viewed the marble Agrigento Youth, loaned to the Getty in exchange for a custom earthquake base. He will tour the Villa's conservation studios and the Getty Museum as well.

Both sides say the discord caused during Italy's hunt has spawned a new era of cooperation and reciprocation.