Getty Museum returns ancient statue to Italian government

LOS ANGELES – The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is returning an ancient marble statue to Italy.

The museum announced Wednesday that the “Statue of Zeus Enthroned” is being voluntarily returned after the Italian government said it obtained a recently discovered fragment of the sculpture.

The 29-inch-high statuette is believed to date from the 1st century BC.

The museum bought the piece in 1992 from an American couple but the Los Angeles Times says (http://lat.ms/2sAWgvn ) there’s no documentation indicating it was legally exported.

At the time of purchase, the Getty’s senior antiquities curator was Marion True. Italy later indicted True for conspiracy to traffic in illegal antiquities but eventually dropped the case.

However, in the past decade, the Getty has returned dozens of artworks to Italy and Greece.