Chasing Aphrodite

by Jason Felch

  Throughout the book, direct quotes and internal thoughts are based on firsthand accounts or reconstructed from contemporaneous written documents. Otherwise, we paraphrased.

  Before publication, the story's principal players were offered an opportunity to correct the record during verbal fact-checking sessions in which we detailed our conclusions. Some—including John Walsh and Debbie Gribbon—chose not to participate.

  Where there were contradictions or diverging accounts, we have favored contemporaneous documents over fading memories. In most cases where a significant dispute persisted, a dissenting view is reflected in the notes that follow.

  PROLOGUE

  PAGE

  [>] more than one hundred: Between 2005 and 2010, American museums returned a total of 102 objects to Italy and Greece: 20 to Italy from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the Euphronios krater and the Morgantina silvers; 13 to Italy from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, including its iconic statue of Sabina; 43 to Italy and 4 to Greece from the J. Paul Getty Museum, including the Aphrodite and the gold funerary wreath; 8 to Italy from the Princeton University Art Museum; and 14 to Italy from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Hundreds more objects were returned during those years by European and Japanese museums, antiquities dealers, and private collectors. more than half a billion: Italian authorities gave an insurance value of $700 million to fifty-six returned objects displayed in an exhibit titled Nostoi: Returned Masterpieces, which did not yet include the Aphrodite and Euphronios krater.

  [>] an Egyptian papyrus: The Abbott Papyrus at the British Museum.

  "In all Sicily": Marcus Tullius Cicero, Against Verres, 2.4.1, in The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, translated by C. D. Yonge (George Bell & Sons, 1903).

  Accessed via Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/.

  3 "I saw successive": George Gordon Byron, The Poetical Works of Byron, Cambridge edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1975).

  [>] "The Age of Piracy": Thomas Hoving, Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Simon & Schuster, 1993), 217.

  1: THE LOST BRONZE

  [>] In the predawn light: The discovery of the bronze statue and its subsequent journey are based on the authors' 2006 interviews with Igli Rosati, the last surviving crew member of the Ferrucio Ferri; Sebastiano Cuva, a friend of the boat's deceased captain, Romeo Pirani, and others in Fano; Italian investigative files; Italian court documents from trials of the alleged smugglers; a 2006 investigative report on the bronze by the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson; and Thomas Hoving's 1979 20/20 report on the bronze (see chapter 4), a copy of which was provided by producer Peter Altschuler.

  For details about the bronze, see Jiri Frel's monograph The Getty Bronze (Getty, 1978 and 1982) and Carol Mattusch's The Victorious Youth (Getty, 1997). Mattusch and other experts are uncertain of the Lysippus attribution. Heinz Herzer's restoration is based on interviews with Herzer and Artemis officials and on Getty conservation reports.

  [>] Getty was a shrunken: The description of and biographical details about J. Paul Getty are from interviews with Stephen Garrett and Burton Fredericksen and from several biographies of Getty, especially Russell Miller's House of Getty (Henry Holt, 1985) and Robert Lenzner's The Great Getty: The Life and Loves of J. Paul Getty—Richest Man in the World (Crown, 1985).

  be bore a passing resemblance: Getty's friendship with Nixon became an issue when, in the midst of the Watergate hearings in September 1973, the billionaire suggested having Nixon officiate over the opening of the original Getty Museum. His adviser Norris Bramlett gently objected, noting, "Mr. Nixon is a very controversial person at this time. While I doubt that it actually will happen, it is possible that in four to six months he might be involved in impeachment proceedings." Getty Trust archives.

  Adolf Hitler: The authors obtained, through a Freedom of Information Act request, a declassified memo on Getty from the commander of the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover dated August 26, 1942. It shows that the U.S. government considered Getty a "potential subversive," noting several links between him and the Axis powers. Just weeks after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Getty traveled to Berlin and attended a speech by Hitler, commenting in his diaries that he found the führer's ideas "worthy of consideration." That same year, Getty spoke admiringly of the Itali an dictator Benito Mussolini, writing in his diary that "Il Duce" was "the greatest son of Italy since Augustus" and had "done great things for Italy." In 1938, Getty purchased the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan and hired former employees of the Italian and German consulates to staff it. The hotel was known as a "hang-out for pro-Axis personalities and French collaborationists." In January 1941, Getty allegedly shipped a large amount of Mexican oil to Germany via Vladivostok. Later that year, Getty was rejected for a commission in the U.S. Navy because he was "suspected of being engaged in espionage." Despite those ties, the memo concludes, "It would appear, lacking other evidence, that Getty has been indiscreet in his choice of associates and naive in his interpretation of the political scene, rather than an avowed supporter of the Nazi or Fascist regimes."

  15 "The beauty one can find": J. Paul Getty, As I See It (Getty, 2003).

  [>] Getty had begun collecting: Getty's collecting is based on interviews with Garrett and Fredericksen and Getty's own accounts in As I See It and Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey Through Europe (W. H. Allen, 1955), a book Getty coauthored with Ethel Le Vane. See also the Getty Museum's 2009 exhibition catalogue Collector's Choice: J. Paul Getty and His Antiquities.

  "The habitual narcotics user": Getty, As I See It.

  [>] "To me my works": Le Vane and Getty, Collector's Choice.

  In a novella: J. Paul Getty, A Journey from Corinth (Privately printed, 1955). The original manuscript is in the Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, California. According to a note in the Getty Research Institute archives, "The manuscript appears to have been prepared by a copy editor and later appears as a chapter in Collector's Choice."

  Arriving at Sutton Place: Based on accounts of life at Sutton Place in Getty biographies.

  his hands shook: Based on reports of Getty's health at the time.

  [>] Just as Getty was learning: The Met's pursuit of the bronze and Getty's legal concerns are detailed in interviews with Thomas Hoving and confidential Met documents, including Dietrich von Bothmer's June 1973 acquisition report to the board of trustees; a memo from von Bothmer to Hoving dated January 1973; Hoving's June 1973 letter to Getty detailing the collector's legal concerns about the bronze; and correspondence between Hoving and Artemis officials. See also Hoving, Making the Mummies Dance, 366.

  some eight times: Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE), podcast, February 20, 2006.

  the New York Times began: The series opened with an investigation by Nicholas Gage on February 18, 1973, and continued into early 1974.

  [>] Hoving decided to propose: Met documents and interviews with Hoving.

  [>] a tax shelter: This account is based on documents in the Getty Trust archives. Marion True described Getty's motives in her introduction to The Getty Villa (Getty, 2005): "Making the collection available to the public would bring with it certain tax benefits that appealed to the wealthy but thrifty collector." (See "admission" note below.)

  [>] The small museum opened: True, Getty Villa; interviews with Garrett and Fredericksen; Getty Trust archives.

  No admission was charged: At one point, Getty suggested charging admission but was advised against it by Bramlett. "While they would have no right to do so, people like Ralph Nader and Congressman [John] Patman could have a field day out of the J. Paul Getty Museum making an admission charge and I feel it would cause considerable ill-will and bad publicity towards you personally," Bramlett wrote Getty in a September 25, 1973, letter. "This is because you personally have been allowed under the tax law huge deductions in computing taxable income because of your personal contributions to your Foundation. This means that the funds in the Museum are quas
i-public funds because presumably the public at large has paid more taxes so that you could enjoy the tax saving. If the public must now pay to see the Museum, they could very well feel this is an imposition." Getty took Bramlett's advice and insisted that his museum be "free of all charges—be they admission or even for parking automobiles" (Getty, As I See It, 279). Admission to the museum is still free today, but it costs $15 to park in the garage.

  22 Garrett was skeptical: Interviews with Garrett.

  "It will be a re-creation": Interviews with Garrett.

  the billionaire micromanaged: Interviews with Garrett; Getty Trust archives.

  [>] the new Getty Museum: Among the antiquities dealers who attended the opening were Robin Symes and Heinz Herzer. Getty never saw the museum that bore his name. After he left the United States in June 1951, he never returned, in part because of his fear of flying.

  [>] beg and plead: Interviews with Garrett and Fredericksen; Getty Trust archives.

  the ninth codicil: According to Getty's will, press accounts, and copies of the Getty's federal tax forms, especially for 1977, Getty's gift amounted to sixty-four acres of property in Pacific Palisades (although the location is always referred to as Malibu, which is just a few blocks away) worth $3.1 million; the ranch house; Getty's $3.6 million art collection; $17 million in cash; and four million shares of Getty Oil stock worth $662 million. The will's twenty-first codicil—added by Getty shortly before his death, with Bramlett as the only witness—took control of the museum's share of the estate out of his family's hands and gave it to the museum's six-member board of trustees.

  [>] to avoid paying California taxes: According to records in the Getty Trust archives and an interview with former Los Angeles Times art critic William Wilson, the Getty frequently lent new acquisitions to out-of-state museums to avoid paying California's sales and use tax on foreign works of art.

  2: A PERFECT SCHEME

  [>] Among those: Biographical details about Jiri Frel are from the Getty Trust archives and interviews with Stephen Garrett, Burton Fredericksen, Thomas Hoving, George Goldner, Selma Holo (director of the International Museum Institute and USC Fisher Museum of Art), Bruce McNall, William Wilson, Jerry Eisenberg, and Frel's ex-wife, Faya Causey.

  [>] once revealed: Declassified FBI documents. Frel said that he had tried to join the Communist Party as a career move but was rejected because of his "independent political philosophy." He added that the Communist regime had permitted him to travel extensively for academic reasons but had made him fill out lengthy forms listing the names of his contacts and information about them—information that he suspected was reviewed by the Czechoslovak intelligence service.

  [>] "fucking American morons": This quote and the preceding descriptions of Harold Berg are from interviews with Thomas Hoving.

  in Wiener's name: Interview with Malcolm Wiener.

  30 twenty-five-year-old coin dealer: Biographical details about McNall are from public records; interviews with McNall, Hoving, Arthur Houghion, and Robert Hecht; and McNall's autobiography, Fun While It Lasted: My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune (Hyperion, 2003). McNall is known for his boyish enthusiasm and ever-changing stories about himself. A dropout from a Ph.D. program in classics at UCLA, he told people he had attended Oxford. In truth, he had just driven through the university. He told Hecht that he had once worked with a local plastic surgeon helping perform face-lifts. According to a former colleague, McNall also claimed to have been a surgeon in a burn unit before an especially sad case of a burned girl prompted him to turn to coins. When the colleague pointed out that McNall was far too young to have graduated from medical school, the dealer claimed that he had been in an accelerated program. "It was easy," he quipped. McNall, who later acquired a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, was convicted in December 1996 of defrauding his own franchise, a securities firm, and six banks of $236 million. He was sentenced to seventy months in prison and ordered to pay $5 million in restitution to the banks. He was released from prison for good behavior in 2001 after serving nearly five years.

  McNall's supplier: Biographical details about Hecht are from interviews with Hecht, McNall, Hoving, and Giacomo Medici; Marion True, deposition before Paolo Ferri and Guglielmo Muntoni, Los Angeles, June 20–21, 2001 (hereafter "True's 2001 deposition"); Frieda Tchakos, deposition before Paolo Ferri, Limassol, Cyprus, February 19, 2002 (hereafter "Tchakos's 2002 deposition"); Robin Symes, deposition before Paolo Ferri, Rome, March 28, 2003 (hereafter "Symes's 2003 deposition"); and Hecht's unpublished memoir, which was seized by Italian authorities.

  [>] to back up values: In the authors' interview with Jerry Eisenberg, he said, "I did a few appraisals but never took any commission from Frel. I remember he wanted to get as much as he could. I wouldn't put my signature on it unless I could defend it."

  [>] The value of the gifts: According to Hecht's memoir, in which he recounts discussing the dollar amounts with Weintraub: "Later, Sy remarked to me that he only purchased antiquities to make donations and that it was not worth his trouble if he could not multiply his cost by 5X for the donation."

  the donation scheme: Interviews with McNall; Arthur Houghton's contemporaneous notes (hereafter "Houghton's notes"); confidential Getty records of its internal investigation into the donation scheme. All the donors, with the appraised values of their donations, are listed in the trust's tax returns. Most donated objects were published in the J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, the museum's annual catalogue of acquisitions. Actual values paid for the objects come from internal Getty records or Houghton's notes. Jane Cody, McNall's former wife, said that she knew nothing about $293,000 worth of antiquities listed as gifts in her name. Faya Causey would not comment on donations from her and her family. Sy Weintraub died in 2000. Gordon McLendon died in 1986. In an e-mail to the authors, attorney Ken Ziffren said, "My partner, Skip Brittenham, and I recall that Bruce McNall, then a client of our firm, asked if we would purchase some Greek art and donate it to the Getty Museum. We agreed to do so and believe we ultimately purchased the art and donated it on the basis of the actual cash purchase price each of us paid for the art. We became aware sometime later that other individuals may have donated art on the basis of large appraisals of fair market value. Neither of us recall any contact with Mr. Frel." In a subsequent e-mail, Ziffren corrected that statement, saying that a review of his records showed that neither he nor Brittenham had actually purchased any objects or claimed any tax deductions. Ziffren and Brittenham refused to elaborate, citing attorney-client privilege. Lily Tomlin, contacted through a representative, declined to comment. William Herbert Hunt, speaking on his brother Nelson Bunker's behalf, said that they had done business with McNall and met Frel but that he did not specifically recall buying any objects on display at the Getty. In the authors' interview with Alan Salke, he confirmed that the government took him to court over the appraised value supplied by Frel for his donation to the Getty. Salke said that he ended up settling for a value of $75,000 and paid $35,000 in back taxes. Richard Sandler, an attorney for the Milkens, said that Lowell never donated anything to the Getty. Michael did, Sandler said, but only after he had an independent appraiser set the value for tax purposes, which the IRS did not contest. The authors could not reach Stanley Silverman for comment.

  36 He built a swimming pool: Interviews with McNall and Eisenberg.

  a shiny BMW: Interview with Goldner. Vasek Polak died in 1997.

  one of the largest: Tax fraud has been a recurring problem in American museums, but few cases have been as systematic as the Getty's decadelong scheme. In 1982, two undercover IRS agents made donations of overvalued Egyptian artifacts to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. LACMA officials accepted the objects with inflated values and signed backdated donation forms for the agents. LACMA officials later said that this was "an honest mistake" and promised to change their procedures. But in 2008, LACMA was among several southern California museums raided by federal agents investigating a tax
fraud scheme involving the donation of inflated Southeast Asian artifacts. To date, no museum official has been charged with a crime. The Smithsonian Institution also has been accused of repeat offenses. In 1983, the IRS found that gems donated to the Smithsonian had been appraised at five times their true value. The museum pledged to tighten its procedures. In 1997, a New Jersey businessman donated four Stradivarius instruments with a claimed value of $55 million to the National Museum of American History, making it one of the largest gifts ever to a Smithsonian museum. Records later provided to Congress showed that museum officials had valued the instruments for insurance purposes at just $5 million. The donor was later convicted of an unrelated tax fraud.

  More than a hundred: These figures and the broader tax fraud were first exposed by Thomas Hoving and Geraldine Norman, "Huge Tax Fraud Uncovered at Getty Museum," Times (London), February 13, 1987. The authors independently confirmed the donation amounts with Getty tax records and confidential Getty records of its internal investigation.

  Others viewed the donations: Interviews with Eisenberg and Fredericksen; Houghton's notes.

  3: TOO MORAL

  [>] the Getty would be required: As a private operating foundation, the Getty is obligated to spend 4.25 percent of its endowment every year on activities that benefit the public. With $1.2 billion in assets in 1981, that amounted to $51 million in required spending.