Sicily Wants Its Art at Getty Villa Returned

Museums in Los Angeles and Cleveland are caught in an impasse with Sicily's government who wants its antiquities returned, claiming they are losing tourism revenue, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Sicily: Art and Invention Between Greece and Rome" includes 85 sculptures (including three major ones), painted vases, gold ritual vessels, playful architectural decorations and various object-fragments demonstrate the artistic sophistication of the era.

The exhibition was co-organized by Getty curator Claire Lyons and Michael Bennett of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, where it travels in September.

The two American museums were expected to share the exhibition costs, but now Sicily's top culture minister says once the exhibition finishes in L.A. it wants its art returned, leaving Cleveland with nothing to show in September.

More than 100,000 people have seen the exhibit at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, the newspaper reports, and the issue may still not be closed.

If the exhibit, planned to close in L.A. on Aug. 19, does leave America early, the Getty Museum may have to absorb the entire financial costs of the exhibit, straining the cultural relationship between the Getty and Sicily.

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