LOS ANGELES, June 22 (UPI) -- The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has agreed to give up many of its most prized antiquities, which were allegedly looted from Italy.
Italy expects to receive 50 objects from the Getty in November, including a Greek silverware collection and a bronze statue said to have been crafted by Lysippus in the fourth century B.C.
In return, the Getty will be loaned several major artworks of "comparable beauty and historical importance," ANSA reported. In addition, the two parties will stage joint exhibitions aimed at "exalting the potential of the recently renovated Villa Getty, the only U.S. museum dedicated to the art and culture of ancient Italy and Greece."
The Getty deal is similar to an agreement between Italy and New York's Metropolitan Museum earlier this year. Euphronios Krater, a sixth century B.C. vase, is being returned to Italy by the Met.
Ludovico Gippetto, head of the organization that campaigned for the antiquities, said the market for looted artworks "is second in value only to the drugs trade."
