Museum malpractice as corporate crime? The case of the J. Paul Getty Museum

Abstract

Within a corporate criminological framework, this paper examines the antiquities acquisition policies and activities of the J. Paul Getty Museum particularly during the curatorship of Marion True, whose indictment by the Italian government was part of a broader investigation into the trade of illicitly obtained Italian antiquities. Specifically, we employ two theoretical perspectives – that of differential association and anomie – to examine malpractice among Getty officers and suggest that both museum cultures and the psychology of collecting may in fact be criminogenic. In light of such criminological insight, we conclude the paper with suggestions for broad reforms of museum governance.

Keywords::

• corporate crime
• antiquities
• museum governance
• collecting
• anomie
• differential association

Acknowledgements

Neil Brodie acknowledges European Research Council funding under FP7 for the Trafficking Culture project, which has supported the writing of this paper. Blythe Proulx would like to thank the Trafficking Culture Project staff for their support and guidance on this paper. Both authors are grateful for the thoughtful suggestions of three anonymous reviewers, which they believe have gone a long way toward improving the clarity and quality of their text.

Notes

^1. For example, in 2012, New York-based art dealer Subhash Kapoor was arrested on allegations of trafficking in looted Indian antiquities and hundreds of objects in prominent museums around the world were traced back to him (Halperin 2012; Pogrebin and Flynn 2012).

^2. Notably, its ‘One Hundred Missing Objects’ series of illustrated booklets, and ‘Red Lists’ of endangered objects (ICOM 2013).

^3. See Elia (2009), who has written on the ‘mythologies’ of the antiquities trade that facilitate the explanation, justification, and validation of antiquities collecting. These include the myths of: the old collection; the chance find; the reputable dealer; the collector as guardian of the past; and the guilty source country (p. 244). Elia is an archaeologist, but to a criminologist his ‘mythologies’ read very much like neutralizations.

^4.United States v. McClain (McClain II), 593 F.2d 658 (5th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 918 (1979).

^5.United States v. McClain (McClain I), 545 F.2d 988 (5th Cir. 1977), reh'g denied, 551 F. 2d 52 (5th Cir. 1977).

^6. The McClain decision was further reaffirmed in February 2002 when US dealer Frederick Schultz was convicted under the U.S.'s National Stolen Property Act of conspiring to deal in antiquities stolen from Egypt (Gerstenblith 2003a, 2009; Urice 2010). See also United States v. Schultz, 178 F. Supp 2d 445 (S.D.N.Y. 2002) aff'd 333 F3d 393 (2nd Cir. 2003).

^7. Italy's Carabinieri (military police) have a specialized unit, Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, which is responsible for the protection of the country's archaeological, cultural, and artistic heritage.

^8. Hecht's trial ended in January, 2012 without verdict (Felch 2012). He died in February, 2012 at the age of 92 (Weber 2012).

^9. Provenance is ownership history. Most antiquities that appear for sale on the market have only limited or incomplete provenance, so that it is not possible to reconstitute a secure chain of ownership. Thus judgments about title and the potential legal risks of acquisition are often subjective and based on what evidence of provenance is available. Acquisition policies are intended to reduce the element of subjectivity inherent in such judgments. (The related term provenience denotes the archaeological find spot and context of an artifact).

^10. While as Geis (2007) and others have observed, white-collar crime is one of the most contested terms in all of criminology, we narrow our focus to examine the Getty's conduct through the lens of corporate crime; that is, non-violent, illicit conduct undertaken on the part of companies and its employees in furtherance of business goals (Green 2004) – more particularly, conduct prohibited by ‘criminal, civil, and regulatory law and administered by the appropriate system of justice’ (Simpson 2011, 481), thus widening the definition to encompass violations of law as well as overtly criminal acts (Clinard and Yeager, 1980, 16).

^11. The Getty's first Curator of Antiquities (1973–1984), Jiri Frel, had other ideas. He believed that a world class museum required an in-depth ‘study collection’ of small and fragmentary though scholarly important pieces–pieces that would not necessarily be placed on display but that would be stored and made available for scholarly research (Felch and Frammolino 2011, 29). The outcome was the same. In 1994, at the instigation of True, the Getty returned to Italy several hundred ceramic fragments acquired by Frel between 1979 and 1981 that were found to have been looted from a sanctuary at Francavilla Maritima in Italy (True 1997, 143; Lyons 2010, 422–5), and in 2013 questions were raised about the suspicious provenances of more of his acquisitions (Felch 2013).

^12. There are less sanguine opinions of these occasions. Reporter Nikolas Zirganos believes they were used for the ‘preparation and closing of deals.’ Symes and Michaelides would entertain archaeologists, museum curators, conservators and wealthy collectors to gossip about the market and what was available for purchase, and to arrange sales (Zirganos 2007, 318–9). Thus it would be possible for a customer on Schinoussa to purchase a stolen antiquity without actually coming into contact with it. Michaelides died in 1999, and in April 2006 Greek police raided what was by then Symes's villa on Schinoussa (Zirganos 2007).

^13. The aggregate monetary value of these stolen antiquities, and thus the financial loss incurred by the Getty Trust upon their return to Italy, is significant. The purchase prices and estimated values of some of the returned pieces, when known, are provided here (the first two figures of the accession number indicate the year of accession): Asteas krater (81.AE.78), bought for $275,000 (Slayman 2006); Etruscan candelabrum (90.AC.17), bought for $65,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 84–7); Attic Red-Figured phiale fragments (81.AE.213), acquired in a series of 63 fragments between 1981 and 1990, with an average purchase price per fragment of $3000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 226–27); Marble sculptural group of two griffins attacking a fallen doe (85.AA.106), valued at $5.5 million (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 124–25, 389); Marble lekanis (85.AA.107), valued at $2.2 million (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 124–25); Statue of Apollo (85.AA.108), valued at $2.5 million (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 124–25); Attic Red-Figured kantharos (85.AE.263), bought for $200,000 (Watson and Todeschini 2007, 90–92); Apulian pelike (86.AE.611), bought for $42,000 (Felch and Frammolino 2005); Apulian pelike (87.AE.23), bought for $60,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 89–90); Cult Statue of a Goddess (88.AA.76), bought for $18 million (Frammolino and Felch 2007); Attic Red-Figured krater (92.AE.6 and 96.AE.335), valued at $800,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 117); Statuette of Tyche (96.AA.49), purchased for $2 million (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 375); Apulian bell krater (96.AE.29), valued at $185,000; (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 373, 378); Attic Black-Figured amphora (96.AE.92), valued at $275,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 374, 376); Etruscan amphora (96.AE.139), valued at $400,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 374); Fragment of a Roman fresco (96.AG.171), valued at $95,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 375); Etruscan amphora (96.AE.139), valued at $400,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 374); Fragment of a Roman fresco (96.AG.171), valued at $95,000 (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 375).

^14. Houghton's 1984 opinion that no action would be taken against an importer not possessing certain knowledge is open to question. At the 2003 appeal trial of antiquities dealer Frederick Schultz (see note 5), the judge warned that conscious avoidance of fact does not constitute a defence (Gerstenblith 2003a, note 11; 2009, 31, note 44).

^15. This statue is now believed by many authorities to be fake (Lapatin 2000). By 2012, it was being described by the Getty as ‘Greek, about 530 BC, or modern forgery.’

^16. Gianfranco Becchina is an Italian antiquities dealer who was convicted in Rome in February 2011 of illegally dealing in antiquities. He appealed the conviction (ICE 2012).

^17. Walsh went on record as stating that the alternative ‘guilty until proven innocent approach … is not only unrealistic, but in many cases works against the preservation of works of art’ (Felch and Frammolino, 2011, 107). Against that opinion, the 1987 acquisition policy which devolved responsibility for checking provenance from the Getty to outside parties might also be interpreted as another example of what Houghton had characterized as ‘self-enforced ignorance of fact’ (Felch and Frammolino 2011, 71–72).

^18. In August 1987, the Getty notified Italy about its intended purchase of the Morgantina Aphrodite. Italy replied that ‘following research undertaken … no information has emerged concerning the provenance and authenticity of the object’ (Eakin 2007, para 24). In fact, it was not until 2006 that a private investigative agency hired by the Getty uncovered evidence of trafficking in the form of photographs taken in the 1980s of the then newly excavated statue (Felch and Frammolino 2011, 288).

^19. In 1995, under True's advocacy, and in response to her misgivings about the reliability of vendor guarantees, the Getty strengthened its acquisitions policy with the additional requirement that no piece would be purchased unless it could be documented as having been outside its country of origin by November 1995, the date of the policy amendment (True 1997, 139).

^20. On October 23, 2006, the Getty Museum's Board of Trustees announced a new policy for acquisitions. For antiquities, article 4 states that:

… the Museum will require:

	a) Documentation or substantial evidence that the item was in the United States by November 17, 1970 (the date of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property) and that there is no reason to suspect it was illegally exported from its country of origin, OR
	b) Documentation or substantial evidence that the item was out of its country of origin before November 17, 1970 and that it has been or will be legally imported into the United States, OR
	c) Documentation or substantial evidence that the item was legally exported from its country of origin after November 17, 1970 and that it has been or will be legally imported into the United States (Getty 2006).

^21. In August 2011, James Cuno was appointed CEO of the Getty Trust. He was quoted as saying at the time of his appointment that his top priority was hiring a museum director for the Getty with ‘an appetite for risk in acquiring extraordinary works of art’ (Finkel and Boehm 2012). In September 2012, Timothy Potts was appointed as director. A former colleague spoke positively of him as someone ‘who keeps his nerve in making big and sometimes adventurous acquisitions’ (Finkel and Boehm 2012).

^22. In 1996, the Getty acquired the Fleischman collection of 321 antiquities by a combination of gift and purchase (Getty 1994; Felch and Frammolino 2011, 144–146). In 1999 and 2007, 13 of the acquired pieces were identified as stolen and deaccessioned and returned to Italy (Watson and Todeschini, 2007, 372–378).

^23. The Metropolitan returned the krater to Italy in 2006 (Metropolitan 2006).

^24. It is surprising, for example, that the Attorney General of California failed to investigate the actions of the Getty Trust in incurring a large financial loss through failing in its fiduciary responsibility to adopt and implement an effective acquisitions policy that would guard against the need for deaccessioning restitutions of stolen antiquities (see Gerstenblith 2003b for argument). This inaction contrasts with a civil investigation of the Getty Trust ordered in July 2005 by the Attorney General to investigate allegations of improper disbursements made by the Trust during the 1998–2006 tenure of Barry Munitz as CEO (Lockyer 2006).

^25. See note 20.

^26. See Hagen (2012) for a more in-depth and critical though broadly concordant analysis of the Object Registry.

^27. Italy has struck similar agreements with other museums (see note 8 above).

^28. See the museum's mission statement at http://www.getty.edu/museum/about.html

^29. A query concerning a deaccession made by one of the authors (Brodie) to the Getty press office during the writing of this paper went unanswered.

^30. As of 2012, only potential acquisitions by the Getty costing more than a million dollars are reviewed by the Board of Trustees acting as a committee (http://www.getty.edu/about/governance/pdfs/bylaws12.pdf, 6; Finkel 2012).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neil Brodie

Neil Brodie is Senior Research Fellow in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow. Dr. Brodie is an archaeologist by training, and has held positions at the British School at Athens, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, where he was Research Director of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, and Stanford University's Archaeology Center. He was co-author of the report Stealing History, commissioned by the Museums Association and ICOM-UK. He also co-edited Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade, Illicit Antiquities: The Theft of Culture and the Extinction of Archaeology, and Trade in Illicit Antiquities: The Destruction of the World's Archaeological Heritage. He has worked on archaeological projects in the United Kingdom, Greece and Jordan, and continues to work in Greece.

Blythe Bowman Proulx

Blythe Bowman Proulx is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. With a background in both classical archaeology and criminology, her research interests include antiquities trafficking and transnational crime. In 2008, Proulx helped put together an international conference on organized crime in art and antiquities while serving as a key member on the planning committee of the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council (ISPAC) to the United Nations. Her work has appeared in various journals including Trends in Organized Crime, Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Crime, Law & Social Change, Critical Criminology, and the Journal of Criminal Justice Education.