Listen to the audio version of the article
For the European Court in Strasbourg, the Victorious Athlete of Lysippos must return to Italy: our country has won the last round of the legal dispute with the Getty museum. The Court has in fact issued a sentence that unequivocally recognizes the rights of the Italian State on the work, a bronze statue attributed to the sculptor Lisippos, found in 1964 by Italian fishermen in the waters of the Adriatic Sea off the coast of the Marche and subsequently stolen from ‘abroad.
“Italy, acting towards the Getty Museum of Malibu to obtain the return of a Greek bronze statue attributed to Lysippus, acted correctly, without violating the European Convention on Human Rights” the European Court of Human Rights of Strasbourg unanimously ruled in its ruling relating to the lawsuit brought by the J. Paul Getty Trust against the Italian State.
European Convention on Human Rights
For the Strasbourg judges, there was no violation of Article 1 of Protocol 1 (protection of property) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned a confiscation order, issued by the Italian authorities, aimed at recovering the Victorious Athlete, a bronze statue dating back to the classical Greek era (300-100 BC) attributed to Lysippus, fished out by chance from a fishing boat off the coast of Fano in 1964 and purchased by the Getty Museum in 1977.
Getty Villa Museum in Malibu
The controversy over the find has been going on for many years. The statue, which was allegedly illegally purchased by the J. Paul Getty Trust, is currently located at the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu (California, United States of America). The Italian authorities, the Court recalls, acted with the aim of recovering an illegally exported cultural heritage. The Court also mentions, in particular, the “negligence” or “bad faith” of the Getty Trust, which purchased the statue despite being aware of the Italian state’s claims and its efforts to recover it. Therefore, the confiscation order is “proportionate to the aim of guaranteeing the restitution of an object that is part of the Italian cultural heritage”.
Getty, who bought it in 1977 for $4 million, has long defended his right to the statue, arguing that it was found in international waters and has never been part of Italy’s cultural heritage.
