The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday upheld Italy’s right to confiscate a contested ancient Greek statue on display in the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. It ruled that in trying to recover the artifact, Italian authorities had “acted with the purpose of recovering an unlawfully exported piece of cultural heritage.”
The ruling rejected the appeal of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which had asked the European Court of Human Rights to weigh in on the case after Italy’s highest court in 2018 ruled that the Getty had to return the statue to Italy.
Thursday, the Getty said it believed its possession of the bronze was “appropriate, ethical and consistent with American and international law” and that if necessary, it would “continue to defend its possession of the statue in all relevant courts.”
The Getty identifies the life-size bronze sculpture, which dates between the second or third century B.C., as a “Victorious Youth.” But in Italy, it is known as the “Athlete of Fano,” for the small seaside town on the Adriatic off whose waters Italian fishermen discovered the statue in 1964.
Italian officials assert that it was illegally smuggled out of Italy and passed onto the international art market, where the Getty bought it for about $4 million in 1977.
The statue, widely held to be one of the finest original Greek bronzes to have survived from the classical era, has been at the heart of a complex legal dispute for decades.
In its 2018 ruling, Italy’s highest court said the work should be confiscated and returned to Italy, upholding a lower court’s confiscation order.
In response, the Getty had turned to the European court, which is based in Strasbourg, France, arguing that its rights to the statue had been violated under a European human rights protocol on protection of property.
The court is a tribunal of the Council of Europe and rules on cases in which there are accusations that civil or political rights have been violated by member states who have agreed to accept its jurisdiction. Thursday’s judgment was given by seven judges from various countries.
In the ruling, the court found that no violation by Italy had occurred.
Lorenzo D’Ascia, a lawyer for the Italian government involved in the case, noted that the European court had affirmed that there was international consensus about the need to protect cultural artifacts from looting.
