GETTY EXPECTED TO RETURN FUNERARY WREATH TO GREECE

After nearly a year of negotiations, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has agreed in principle to return a rare fourth-century-BC gold funerary wreath to Greece that cultural officials there contend was illegally removed from Greek soil, reports the New York Times. The museum, which bought the artifact in 1993, reached its decision in recent days after new information came to light about the wreath’s likely origin. An expert briefed on the talks said he was speaking on condition of anonymity because of an agreement on both sides not to speak with the news media until an announcement could be made. The expected accord would come after weeks of growing scrutiny of the museum’s acquisition of the wreath, to which Greece first sought claim in the late ’90s. In November, Greek prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation of Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the Getty, focusing on her involvement in the purchase.