Chasing Aphrodite: Uncovering the Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino

ITS GREAT: To learn that the Getty Museums illegally bought antiquities which were stolen from archeological sights in Italy and Greece was a great shock and disappointment. I visited the original Getty Villa Museum and the n later the new Getty Museum high on the hill in Brentwood, outside of Los Angeles, and marveled at the ancient Greek and Roman art displays treasures. The authors did a great job in portraying the greed the Getty Museum's Boards, CEOS and art curators had in this travesty. Well worth the read, even if you are not into ancient art.

United States on Sep 29, 2022

TravellingCari: A really fascinating read about the world of looted art and how it ends up in the major American museums. While everyone knows the story of the Elgin Marbles and continued conversations about whether the British Museum should return them to Greece, the story of the Getty isn't as well known even though Marion True made worldwide news in the discussions around prosecuting her for her role in the museum's acquisitions.

This book traces the story from the so-called Getty Bronze, which a collector wanted Getty himself to purchase to items that came to the museum from Maurice Tempelsman to items that were acquired through a tax donation scheme by Jiří Frel to the Greek/Sicilian sculpture found in Sicily that formed the book's namesake and beyond. This isn't just the story of the Getty, but rather the story of the issues surrounding American museums and their curators in the years after the 1970 UNESCO declaration. Philippe de Montebello, Thomas Hoving and other art world leaders faced the same dilemmas that Munitz and the others at the Getty did.

Very readable, fascinating history. Only quibble is it sometimes jumped back and forth in time so it wasn't a sequential...

United States on Mar 27, 2019

Steffan Piper: Children often spend quite a bit of time inside of museums while growing up, whether they are going on walking tours, headphone tours, school tours or just meandering around the grounds and gardens with their parents on a Sunday. The education and inspiration that museums provide both children and adults is beyond measure. After reading this book, I would say that most High School age children should pick this up for classroom discussion as a proper way to wrap up that portion of their education and open consideration to museums in the real world. While this may be the detailed story of the Getty, it is actually the true story of most, if not all, museums in the modern age.

I knew what I was getting into when I picked this book as I have followed the development of the Getty Museum through the years while living in Los Angeles. I visited the Getty Villa numerous times in the 90s, semi curious about their artifacts but intrigued by their paintings and then was present for opening weekend in 1997 high up in the hills overlooking the ocean. I recall being on the property the day Huell Howser came to film the gardens and watched him for a few moments from afar.

No one...

United States on Jun 29, 2018

Torchiemana: Albeit some small refused words due to automatic corrections, the book is marvelous, entertaining, thrilling, informative, a must to read for all people interested on Human history!
I'm Italian and didn't know how big the looting problem was, and especially the big countries involved! Good work.
I recommend it to everyone: I was fascinated reading it!

Italy on Nov 16, 2017

Francesco: Testo fondamentale per comprendere la trama di connessioni che ha portato molte opere archeologiche, scavate dai tombaroli, al di fuori dall'Italia verso uno dei musei più ricchi al mondo, il Getty Museum.

Italy on Jul 10, 2016

Musikele: Nel 1970 molti Stati hanno ratificato un trattato UNESCO che vieta l'esportazione di opere d'arte rubate. Purtroppo, però, i musei americani hanno per molti anni volutamente ignorato (o meglio: non chiesto) la provenienza degli oggetti comprati per arricchire le loro collezioni. Il libro quindi racconta di come il Getty Museum, una delle istituzioni museali più ricche del mondo, attivo in California, abbia comprato centinaia di opere scavate illegalmente in Italia e in Grecia.
Tuttavia, grazie alla caparbietà di un team di poliziotti e archeologi italiani, l'Italia è riuscita a riavere indietro un centinaio di oggetti, a volte anche opere d'arte di indiscutibile e inestimabile valore. Il libro cita la Venere di Morgantina, il cratere di Eufronio, il Getty Bronze, e tanti altri. Nonostante il libro sia un po' lunghetto, entra nei dettagli di molte dinamiche, sia nei consigli di amministrazione dei musei, sia nelle stanze dei ministeri italiani. In definitiva: spero che ne venga fatta una traduzione o un riadattamento in italiano. Alla fine, leggendolo, scatta una molla di orgoglio patriottico che è un piacevole effetto collaterale.

Italy on Sep 01, 2014

teacher: if you are interested in the art worls you must read this. The shennanigans of the art galleries and musems are desribed like a detective story. No one comes out of this well except perhaps a couple of determined Italian policemen!

United Kingdom on Apr 17, 2014

Anonymous: Like many of the readers who reviewed this book, I could not put it down. The twists and turns of the careers of those involved in fulfilling the Getty foundation's charter to spend a large amount of money every year on the museum showed how tragedy has its beginnings in great hopes. But it also demonstrated how much the law evolves in actual cases, and how the moral high road is not always well-marked. The highly scrupulous drop out earlier from the art acquisitions game, while the risk takers can wind up having to admit they were involved in looting while being forced to cough up what they acquired, displayed and were once congratulated for snaring. Where there is a lot of money in the budget, there are those who are there to plunder it for personal gain and status, commingling the funds by upgrading their own lifestyle away from the museum. And there are those who accept what amounts to bribes for looking the other way.

Whatever you have seen in politics or the boardrooms of Fortune 500 firms you will see at the Getty, but with far more glamor than in most of such stories of the fall from power. I guess that's because we are talking about beauty and its...

United States on Jun 17, 2011