Displaying items by tag: sicily

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome will not go on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art as previously expected. Sicilian officials claim that the loan has been hurting the island’s economy and have called off the traveling exhibition, which was slated to open at the institution in September.

 The show features 145 objects that celebrate the Greek culture that dominated Sicily between the 5^th and 3^rd centuries, B.C.E. Highlights include a statue of a charioteer that measures six feet tall and a gold libation bowl, both of which are popular tourist attractions. The works are typically displayed at the Whitaker Villa on the tiny island of Mozia off of Sicily’s main landmass.

 Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome is currently on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles through August 19, 2013. The Getty has offered to cover the Cleveland Museum of Art’s costs, which were to be shared between the institutions.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will return a terracotta head depicting the Greek god Hades to Sicily. The museum has been working with Italian officials for two years to decide whether or not the artifact should be returned. The Getty purchased the terracotta head from New York collector Maurice Tempelsman for $530,000 in 1985. Tempelsman had originally acquired the piece from the disgraced antiquities dealer Robin Symes.

Officials determined that the terracotta head was originally located in Sicily at a sanctuary site for the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The piece’s provenance was discovered by comparing the head to four terracotta fragments found near the famous and highly looted archaeological site Morgantina in Sicily. It soon came to light that the head was illegally excavated from Morgantina in the early 1970s.

The Getty entered into an agreement with Italy’s Ministry of Culture in 2007 after a long legal battle regarding looted works and the museum’s former curator, Marion True. The Getty now has connections in various parts of Italy to facilitate cultural exchange and has been working closely with Sicilian officials since 2010.

The head of Hades will be on view at the Getty Villa as part of the exhibition The Sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone at Morgantina through January 21, 2013. The work will then join the Getty-organized traveling exhibition Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome before being placed in Sicily’s Museo Archeologico.