J Paul Getty Museum

Italy's presidential palace will host an exhibit of 40 antiquities that the J. Paul Getty Museum is returning as Rome reclaims treasures it says were looted from Italian territory, officials said Wednesday. The exhibition at the Qurinale Palace will open at the end of December and last through February, the palace said in a statement. Admission will be free. After more than a year of negotiations, the Los Angeles-based Getty agreed in August to return the 40 works Italy says were looted.

Four prized artifacts from the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A. were returned to Italy on Tuesday, the first of 40 works to be handed over by the Getty as a result of Italy's efforts to recover antiquities it says were looted and sold to museums. Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli announced that the four works, which he said were insured for about $425 million, would be distributed to Italian museums.

We live in the age of the close-up. Digital imagery, point-blank sensation and the growing addiction to instantaneous communication make for an era in which standing back to see the big picture seems so last century -- before camera-phone videos, behind-the-scene scandals and website hits became the language of the day. At the J. Paul Getty Museum, Luc Delahaye's panoramic photographs of world events convey the old-fashioned idea that it takes time to make sense of things.

ROME -- Italy will drop its civil charges against former J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities curator Marion True, now on trial here for allegedly trafficking in looted art, Italian authorities announced Tuesday. The announcement came after a subdued ceremony in Rome's Ministry of Culture, where Getty officials confirmed their August pledge to return 40 of the 46 ancient artworks that Italy has claimed were looted and smuggled out of the country before being purchased by the Getty.

What's new at the J. Paul Getty Museum? A batch of artworks acquired by curatorial sleuthing, big-budget shopping and adroit deal-making -- in one case involving the restitution of Nazi loot.

Before the advent of the 15th century printing press that eventually made books available to the masses, Christian priests, monks and nuns in the Middle Ages relied on rare, handmade and colorfully illustrated choir books to preserve their music generation to generation. Music in the religious world in Europe had been passed down orally until the 800s, when monks began to transcribe their melodies onto the parchment of their choir books.

Near the mausoleum under the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels lie the remains of St. Vibiana, an obscure, millenniums-old Italian girl who came to Los Angeles and became a star. Fortunately, her provenance is old and well-established, or the Italian government might be trying to steal her too. Italy has prevailed in its long struggle with the J.

Italian authorities persuaded the J. Paul Getty Museum this week to return 40 disputed works of art, including one of the most striking antiquities found in any American museum: a 2,400-year-old statue of a goddess believed to be Aphrodite, the Greek epitome of love and beauty. The agreement is a multimillion-dollar setback for the Getty and visitors to the Getty Villa, where most of the works were on permanent display. But for the Getty Trust, the deal also brings relief.

A day after the J. Paul Getty Museum announced the return of 40 prized artifacts to Italy, a sense of relief swept across the Getty Center's Brentwood campus, home to the Getty Trust and three other programs that had been largely overshadowed by the museum's antiquities scandal. Many who work at the Getty said the accord Wednesday closed not just the painful dispute over allegedly looted artifacts but a period of relentless controversy under the trust's former chief executive, Barry Munitz.

The most dramatic outcome of Wednesday's eagerly anticipated news of a deal between Italy and the Getty Museum over looted antiquities concerned the fate of Aphrodite. The monumental 5th century BC goddess, believed by many to be from the ancient Greek city of Morgantina on the island of Sicily, is easily among the greatest ancient sculptures in an American museum collection. Now it is among 40 works the Getty has agreed to return to Italy.