Ancient Art

THE ILLICIT TRADE IN ART and antiquities has often been compared to trafficking in drugs or guns. Both trades are international in scope, require a sophisticated smuggling operation and are driven by demand in wealthy nations. But the analogy ends there. Art enriches society. Furthermore, the vast majority of U.S. and European museums are respectable institutions run by conscientious professionals who do their best to act responsibly under what are often challenging circumstances.

Re "Getty Had Signs It Was Acquiring Possibly Looted Art, Documents Show," Sept. 25 The J. Paul Getty Museum is getting a lot of heat for what most other major international museums did to build their collections; the Getty just did it much later on. The issue of returning ancient art to the geographical location of its origin is one that seems to be an issue of property rights. The Egyptian government revealed a glimpse into a possible future solution with the success of its much-ballyhooed new tour of King Tut's treasures.

Ordinary curators spend their careers in the shadows of museums, caring for collections and emerging only with news of special acquisitions or exhibitions. Marion True, curator of antiquities and trust coordinator of Villa programs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, is not an ordinary curator.

Whatever else Walt Disney Concert Hall was designed for, there was always a dream that it might be an ideal place to hear ancient Japanese court and shrine music. So said architect Frank Gehry on Tuesday in a spoken interlude between performances in the hall by the Reigakusha Gagaku Ensemble. In exchanges with UC Irvine professor Robert Garfias, Gehry mentioned the influence of classic Japanese architecture on his style.

Next week, workers at the National Gallery of Art in Washington will begin packing up 142 ancient artifacts from the exhibition "Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya" and trucking them across the country to San Francisco. There, at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the pieces will be unwrapped and put back on display starting in September.

Once upon a time in a place called San Francisco, a group of lawyers and consultants gathered around a table. An important trial was forthcoming, and they knew it would be a hard-fought battle. Darkness was on the horizon. Millions of dollars in darkness. How could they convince a jury that the tragedy that had befallen the plaintiffs was not their clients' fault? The question haunted them, so they sat and pondered, pondered and sat. Finally, an idea emerged. "A train wreck," said one man.

"We've got a problem up here!" Alarm colored the voice of wrangler Bryon Himelick, who was ahead on the trail. I clambered onto a shelf of sandstone to get a better view. Two llamas had slipped their guide ropes, walked off the trail and into a brown puddle. The 3-year-old named Howell was in quicksand up to his panniers. In seconds, Bryon and the two other guides shucked off their backpacks, raced to the llamas and gently pulled them back to solid ground.

Conservation groups filed suit Monday to stop a natural gas survey alongside eastern Utah's Nine Mile Canyon, which contains a bounty of ancient Indian art panels. The groups say that heavy "thumper" trucks and explosives used to look for gas reserves could damage the rock art, cliff dwellings and pit houses that have given Nine Mile Canyon one of the nation's greatest concentrations of ancient sites.

Hong Kong's biggest bank gave Alic Pang a choice: Take a buyout to quit or face deep cuts in benefits. The 14-year employee decided to leave HSBC Holdings to pursue a new livelihood -- the ancient practice of Chinese fortunetelling, guided by the placement art of feng shui, astrology and other factors such as the exact time of a client's birth. Pang hasn't looked back.