The Getty Museum returns to Italy an exceptional Orpheus and the Sirens, one of its jewels

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will return to Italy, their country of origin, the ancient terracotta sculptures forming the exceptional ensemble Orpheus and the Sirens. Representing the mythological hero practically life-size, the group is one of the finest pieces in the museum, where it has been exhibited for more than forty years.

Recent research proves that several of the exhibits, including the Orpheus, have been stolen or come from illegal excavations. “Thanks to the information provided by Matthew Bogdanos and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Antiquities Trafficking Unit reporting the illegal excavation of L’Orpheus and the Sirens, we have determined that these items should be returned,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, in a statement reported by the Los Angeles Times .

According to the Getty, the group of figures, dating from around 350 to 300 BCE, is likely to have once decorated a tomb. “Originally painted in bright colors, this large-scale sculptural ensemble is an exceptional example of the terracotta production characteristic of the Greek colonies in southern Italy,” mentions the work file. Orpheus and the Sirens, which represents the hero with the lyre seated with two sirens, was purchased by J. Paul Getty in 1976 from Banque Leu, a Swiss institution that has since disappeared. The set would have been acquired on the recommendations of Jiri Frel, an archaeologist, at the time curator of antiquities of the institution. For his merit, he transformed the museum into a recognized center of Greek culture and Roman art. But, Jiri Frel resigned in 1986 after revelations proving that he had set up tax manipulations in order to expand the museum’s collection.

Orpheus and the Sirens is the main work concerned by the ongoing restitutions to have been exhibited to the public in recent years. Since the museum publicly announced on August 11 the return of the looted objects to Italy, the sculpture has been removed from view by visitors. The group, along with four other objects, will be sent to Rome from September. The restitution thus includes three pieces acquired by J. Paul Getty in the 1970s and one in the 1990s: a colossal marble head of a divinity from the II^e century, a stone mold from the 2nd^e century to cast pendants and an 1881 oil painting by Camillo Miola titled The Oracle entered the collections about fifty years ago. The last is an Etruscan bronze thymiaterion of the IV^e century BC, purchased in 1996.

The Getty has returned dozens of items to Italy in recent years, but the Getty’s management has resisted further requests. Despite a 2018 decision from Italy’s highest court, for example, he must return a bronze statue of a young Victory, but the museum is still contesting this decision and claiming its rightful ownership. In March, an archaeologist also proved that elements of a mosaic exhibited at the American museum had passed into the hands of a known antiquities trafficker. But the museum has not commented on these latest findings.

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