BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte March 2015 “A Roman basin conserved in an Etruscan museum ”

A Roman basin conserved in an Etruscan museum

The black and white photo illustrated here depicts the oil tycoon, John Paul Getty (1971) at his residence in La Posta Vecchia at Palo Laziale. He poses proudly for the photographer Milton Gendel near a Egyptian red Porphyry basin (labrum) from the Roman period, which he acquired in 1968 from an antiquarian in Florence. In 1974, when Getty decided to leave Italy and return to California, among other things, he wanted to take with him this much-loved object, but the export permit was denied and the basin seized. The competent body wanted (and still inexplicably wants) that the seized basin be placed in judicial custody in Villa Giulia home to the Etruscan Museum, which has the jurisdiction over the territory of Southern Etruria, as if all the finds from Southern Etruria are Etruscan! The two photos on the right, taken last 7^th February, show the condition of the basin today, forty years on: it is abandoned behind the bar, under a gazebo that, rather than protect it, is destroying it, it is full of bird guano and is very cracked due to the excessive summer heat, the humid climate and cold winters. What a shame…. Who knows now that the valorization of the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome passes over to the Fine Arts Council, if the «Etruscan» basin will finally find a worthy place in a Roman art museum? I also wonder if, given that in forty years no one has been able to admire it and now it is in ruins, it would not have been better exhibited and conserved by the magnate.

For info or to report something: bufalearcheologiche@gmail.com

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