Chasing Aphrodite

by Jason Felch

  [>] If the Getty was willing: Erichsen's November 5, 2002, briefing paper to the Getty board's executive committee.

  [>] Erichsen summarized: An October 9, 2002, draft of Erichsen's memo to Munitz titled "The Carabinieri's Submissions as to Six Objects in the Getty's Collection." In the draft memo, Erichsen said that the Carabinieri had "for the first time explicitly stated that a 'good faith gesture' involving the return of three to five objects might lead to a favorable resolution of the investigation of Marion True." He said that the Italian evidence was in many cases "arresting" but did "not compel a decision to return." He noted, however, that "any decision we make must be considered against the background of a decade of policy pronouncements by Getty curators of their unwillingness to retain objects convincingly claimed by Italy as cultural patrimony."

  18: THE REIGN OF MUNITZ

  [>] had plummeted $2 billion: From $5.8 billion in 2000 to $3.8 billion in September 2002.

  [>] Munitz's own profligate use: Details about Munitz's use of Getty resources are based on internal Getty records and were first published in a Los Angeles Times investigation of Munitz in June 2005. The information was later verified by an internal Getty investigation and by investigators for the California attorney general, who in October 2006 found that Munitz had violated laws against using charitable resources for personal gain.

  an absentee CEO: On various occasions, Munitz has defended his actions, saying that the Getty board knew about and approved all his trips and expenses, and in fact granted him several perks in his contract, including first-class travel with his wife. He has said that the board encouraged his extensive time away from the office to develop outside institutional and fundraising support. As for personal use of Getty staff, Munitz has said that he initially tracked and paid taxes for services as added income, but when the Getty switched accounting systems, he stopped tracking them. Working from home, he has said, allowed him time to reflect and be more productive.

  237 she had to run: Indeed, the quirky Getty administrative structure removed the museum director from dealing directly with the trustees, unlike at the Met and other major museums, where the director called the shots. Museum world insiders considered the reporting structure at the Getty a major drawback of the director's job.

  [>] True called Fleischman: Interviews with Barbara Fleischman. True's desire to talk to Munitz was awkward because she didn't report directly to the CEO, but to her institutional adversary, Debbie Gribbon. At the urging of board members, Munitz eventually changed the line of authority so that True reported directly to him about the villa reconstruction.

  [>] "I want you to know": As recounted in Munitz's letter to David Gardner dated October 15, 2002, and in interviews with Gardner.

  [>] He spent hours: Ibid. In an interview by the authors, one Getty official described Munitz as being obsessed with the letter.

  The Italian investigation: This account of the November 2002 conference call and January 2003 board briefing is based on interviews with participants, various drafts of briefing papers presented to the board, and notes taken by a participant during the conference call. In his written statement to the authors, Erichsen said, "I made an effort at all times to provide the Board with as full a description of the Italian controversy as I could." Each of his dozen major briefings "was discussed in advance and in detail with Dr. Munitz and, frequently, board leadership."

  [>] All the references: The executive committee was resigned to the fact that the briefing document, no matter how carefully guarded, would eventually be leaked or could be discoverable in court proceedings. According to one former Getty official with knowledge of the conference call, Kaplan also removed anything that seemed to point the finger at Gribbon from the document.

  The precautions worked: In an interview by the authors, a member of Munitz's management team claimed that they first alerted the board about "troubling" documents in March 2001 and provided updates at every regular meeting. The authors found no documents to support this assertion.

  Erichsen's presentation dwelt: Copies of Erichsen's November 2002 briefing papers and interviews with two former Getty officials. Board members, John Biggs in particular, wondered whether True would strike a plea bargain in which she turned against Gribbon, John Walsh, Harold Williams, and the trustees. "What are we going to do when we get the call she's sitting on a beach in Brazil and they [the Italians] are now turning their attention to the people higher up the chain?" one source quoted Biggs as saying. Interview with a former Getty official and Biggs, who confirmed his concern.

  243 not just a Getty issue: The Italians made no secret that their legal strike against True was the first volley in a "coast to coast" campaign to "systematically scour ... every major collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities in the United States" and recover those that had been looted. Their targets included the Met, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Princeton University Art Museum. Eakin, "Looted Antiquities?"

  [>] "It's just like Nuremberg": Interview with a Getty official who attended the meeting.

  The board was reluctant: As one former Getty official told the authors, board members were worried about taking a public stand only to have emerging facts about True undercut them.

  "I agree ... completely": From a copy of Erichsen's transcribed voice-mail messages. Kaplan declined the authors' requests for an interview.

  [>] Gardner was stunned: This account of Gardner's conversations with Munitz and other board members is based on interviews with Gardner and two former Getty officials.

  He set up a meeting: This account is based on interviews with two former Getty officials.

  [>] Gardner, meanwhile, was lobbying: Munitz's letter to Gardner, January 2004; interviews with Gardner.

  The payoff came: This account is based on interviews with Gardner and one other participant in the closed-session meeting.

  [>] turning the screws: This account of Munitz's barrage of criticism and the April 2004 board meeting is based on interviews with two former Getty officials and copies of Munitz's "performance review" for Gribbon.

  [>] he flogged the tearful: This account is based on Munitz's nine-page follow-up letter to Gribbon and interviews with two former Getty officials.

  She was sanguine: Interview with a former high-ranking Getty official.

  [>] Then, on September 21: The account of this episode is based on interviews with Biggs and two former Getty officials. Gribbon, most recently interim director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, declined comment.

  19: THE APRIL FOOLS' DAY INDICTMENT

  [>] "They are trying": A claim the middleman made in interviews with reporters. The description of Giacomo Medici is based on the authors' observations.

  five months to write: A telling fact about the complexities of the case, since the usual amount of time allowed for judicial decisions is three months.

  He sentenced Medici: The sentence was held in abeyance pending Medici's appeal. The fine was paid in part by the seizure of the dealer's rambling and garishly colored villa in Santa Marinella. In July 2009, an Italt an appellate court upheld Medici's sentence, but he appealed to the supreme court. Because he is now over seventy, he is exempt from having to serve any prison time.

  [>] who had successfully defended: Coppi led a defense team that eventually won acquittal of the seven-time prime minister on charges that he had close associations with the Mafia and had ordered the murder of an investigative journalist who was on the verge of exposing those connections. The case is considered one of the most important post—World War II political trials in Italy.

  "Did Marion True": Fleischman's 2004 deposition.

  255 "a little black book": Ferri had taken copies of the book, which he returned to Fleischman's lawyers. He never used the information in the trial.

  During the next day's: Walsh's 2004 deposition.

  the deposition of Karol Wight: Karol Wight, deposition before Paol
o Ferri and Guglielmo Muntoni, Los Angeles, September 23, 2004.

  [>] During a break: In interviews, Ferri said that he took umbrage when Martin reportedly accused the prosecutor of being ignorant of Italian legal procedures.

  Erichsen advised: Erichsen's July 30, 2008, written statement; interviews with two Getty officials who attended the meeting.

  Muntoni's steely contrariness: During the trip to America, Muntoni had refused to dine with Ferri and others in the Itali an contingent until the last night, when the final deposition was finished. Even then he remained inscrutable.

  [>] On a Sunday afternoon: This scene is drawn from interviews with Ferri.

  a certain Greek vase: The Getty catalogue of the Fleischman collection noted that the piece had been in a 1988 catalogue for Atlantis Antiquities, a gallery partly owned by Hecht. Through her daughter, Barbara Fleischman told the authors the invoice for the vase was dated and paid in 1988.

  Fleischman claimed: Ferri didn't know it at the time, but True and the Fleischmans had actually met two years before the Greek vase was purchased. See chapter 17, note 6.

  how could Larry Fleischman: Barbara Fleischman and her daughter, Martha Fleischman, declined to be interviewed on this and other important points of Ferri's theory.

  [>] Hecht volunteered spontaneously: In an interview for this book, Muntoni said that he still wonders why Hecht made the remark. "In this way, he was destroying the cover story which defended Marion True ... He just volunteered it." Although True and Martha Fleischman declined to be interviewed for this book, both have publicly refuted Ferri's assertion that the collection was a "front" intended to launder looted pieces for the Getty. After the Art Newspaper printed the allegation in April 2008 as part of its report on a court proceeding, True sent a strongly worded letter to the editor saying, "Your article repeats utterly false accusations without analysis or providing an opportunity for a response. Doing so is unfair not only to me, but to two collectors who were dedicated for decades to the support and strengthening of museums not only in America but in England and Italy as well." Martha Fleischman wrote, "The image of my mother, in cahoots with Dr Marion True, conspiring to muddy the waters of provenance, would suggest a hilarious screenplay if this trial were not so vicious in tactics and destructive in effect." Both letters appeared in the May 2008 issue of the Art Newspaper and are available at http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Letters-to-the-editor%20/8470.

  In a final bid: This account is based on True's 2005 testimony and interviews with Ferri and Muntoni.

  259 "Probably nothing": True wrote to the authors, "I did not propose returning them as the provenance provided by Medici was contradicted by the opinion of Janos Szilagy. Szilagy was considered a more reliable expert. Many dealers claim knowledge of provenance without evidence."

  "I'm sorry": Muntoni, who started out unconvinced that True was part of a conspiracy, later pointed to this moment as decisive. Even then, he regarded the curator as a good person who may have wanted to change things but was trapped in a job that was dependent on acquiring looted antiquities. Interview with Muntoni.

  20: LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS

  [>] a series of investigative stories: The stories on Munitz were reported and written by Jason Felch, Robin Fields, and Louise Roug. Stories about the antiquities scandal were reported and written by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino. The account of internal Getty reaction to the series is based on interviews with former Getty officials.

  [>] recently tried to recruit: Months before, Olson had turned down a Getty board appointment after the trustees failed to heed his recommendation to form an internal committee to investigate the allegations about Munitz coming out in the Los Angeles Times. Interview with someone with knowledge of the discussions.

  [>] "You're in trouble here": This account is based on interviews with two former Getty officials and Biggs. The former Getty officials also told the authors that Olson warned Bryson that she or other board members could go to jail—a statement Olson declined to discuss with the authors because of attorney-client privilege. Bryson, who stepped down as board chair in 2010, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. Getty records show that MTO immediately began investigating the liability of trustees and the criminal liability the Getty faced under federal law prohibiting the receipt of public goods.

  As if to underscore: In California, the attorney general is responsible for regulating charitable trusts that are registered in the state and can take legal action if the assets—considered public because they are tax-exempt—are used for personal gain.

  [>] hired a crisis management firm: The Getty hired Sitrick and Company, a Los Angeles—based firm specializing in "crisis communications." One of the first things Sitrick suggested was that Munitz announce an investigation into the leak of the documents, thus shutting down the Times' sources. Getty officials decided against this tactic. Sitrick also urged the Getty to engage the newspaper, but Munitz refused. The Getty ended up paying Sitrick $750,000 for largely unheeded advice, according to a Sitrick executive, a former Getty official, and Getty records.

  Munitz called True: These accounts of the meeting between Munitz and True and of Munitz's conversation with Fleischman are based on interviews with a former Getty official and someone familiar with the subsequent MTO investigation into the loan. Munitz wasn't the only one who was worried about the loan. Erichsen also was reportedly upset by True's refusal to name the lenders and repeatedly called her to demand their identities. Interview with a former Getty official.

  True said that Gribbon: An alternative account from Barbara Fleischman had Debbie Gribbon and Peter Erichsen approaching True informally at a cocktail party to ask casually about the loan.

  Racing home to change: This account is based on an interview with someone familiar with the episode, which was part of the later investigation into True's loan.

  265 The curator appeared: Details of this discussion come from Biggs and a former Getty official familiar with the conversation. The former Getty official also claimed that Olson advised the Getty to fire True if she had not disclosed the loan and was upset to hear later that Biggs had allowed her to "retire."

  [>] For the first time: Los Angeles Times, October 4 and November 11, 2005. Flavia Zisa: A close friend of True's, Zisa happened to show up to talk to the Getty the day True was told she had to resign or be fired. Zisa found out what had happened when she went to True's Santa Monica condo and found the distraught curator in tears.

  in New York: The occasion that brought the men together was the opening of a Met exhibit on Antonello da Messina, Sicily's most famous Renaissance painter. Also in attendance at the meeting was Luis Li, the MTO attorney who was in charge of the firm's investigation into Italian claims against Getty antiquities. This account of the meeting between Munitz and Pagano is based on Getty documents and interviews with Alessandro Pagano, Flavia Zisa, and a former Getty official.

  [>] But the talks grew cold: The Sicilians wanted Munitz to take quick action because Pagano was facing reelection in two months. Pagano won the election, but Munitz was ousted, and the talks formally died. Interviews and e-mail exchanges with Luis Li, Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig, and Flavia Zisa.

  Erichsen and others feared: Interviews with Li and Hartwig.

  board was backing away: "This puts the board chair and vice chair in the driver's seat, looking at policy issues independent of the management of the Getty," board member Ramon Cortines told the authors.

  [>] delicate matters: Munitz's spending related to Nana Zhvitiashvili and Iris Mickein raised eyebrows among members of the board, but the authors found no evidence that the relationships were sexual. Rather, people close to Munitz said that he had a penchant for mentoring talented young women, lavishing them with attention and support in an almost fatherly way, much as he had with his chief of staff, Jill Murphy.

  Munitz even offered: Copies of Munitz's correspondence with Zhvitiashvili.

  The intern showed up: Interview with
a former high-ranking Getty official.

  He later arranged: Munitz's memo to John Elderfield, MoMAs chief curator of painting and sculpture, dated February 24, 2003.

  [>] The final break: This account of Munitz's conversation with Murphy is based on an interview with a former Getty official.

  [>] Fleischman wasn't about: The account of Fleischman's speech to the board is based on a copy of her seven-page statement and interviews with two former high-ranking Getty officials who attended the board meeting.

  21: TRUE BELIEVERS

  [>] the Getty Villa's public debut: The morning of the opening, the Los Angeles Times ran an article with the headline "Getty Official in Italy for Talks on Contested Art; As the museum opening nears, its director begins a 'dialogue' on rights to antiquities. Ex-curator is accused of conspiring to receive looted items."

  [>] All these touches: "Marion True was the driving force behind the villa. It became her, as far as I could tell ... It was her main dream and total commitment to make the villa a reality, so she was the force that kept moving the ball forward—the planning, the design, the programmatic concepts." Interview with a former high-ranking Getty official.

  [>] the few thousand antiquities: Even with the extra room, the Getty Villa could display only about half of the twenty-five hundred antiquities considered to be of museum quality.

  [>] the perfect proxy: Ferri said that his legal case wasn't about retrieving priceless art objects for Italy, where museum warehouses are stuffed with superior pieces. "That's not the battle we are conducting," he told the authors. "We are conducting another battle. We are saying to the museums ... stop acquiring, and that means stop looting." He also said that he intended the Aphrodite to be a "symbol" of the battle and had added it to the Getty demand list at the last minute "to make a bang."