Italy has every right to confiscate and demand the return of the Greek bronze statue of the Victorious Athlete attributed to Lysippus which is currently in the Getty Villa museum in Malibu, California. The European Court of Human Rights ruled this unanimously today by rejecting the appeal presented by the Paul Getty Foundation for violation of property protection. The work of rare beauty has been at the center of a dispute between Italy and the Malibu Museum for years. On November 30, 2018, the Court of Cassation established with a ruling that the victorious athlete belonged to Italy, but the matter ended up at the European Court.
The legal process
The sculpture was fished offshore in the Marche waters in 1964; it passed on a fishing boat from Fano and on our soil without being reported to the authorities as required by law and was therefore exported illegally; it arrived by ship in Boston in August 1977 after which, in the same year, the Californian institute acquired it. The Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection command conducted in-depth investigations; in 2007 the Le Cento Città association presented a complaint to the Pesaro Prosecutor’s Office; a tense legal battle broke out; in June 2018 the Pesaro Court ordered the confiscation of the sculpture and in November the Supreme Court confirmed it, rejecting the Getty Museum’s appeal.
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