GREEK COURT DISMISSES CASE AGAINST MARION TRUE

An appeals court in Athens has dismissed a criminal case against Marion True, a former curator for the Getty Museum in Los Angeles who had been accused of conspiring to acquire an ancient gold wreath that Greece says was looted from its soil, reports Anthee Carassava for the New York Times. The unanimous decision by the three-member appeals court came eight months after the Getty formally handed over the disputed funerary wreath and a week after True’s lawyer filed a motion for dismissal. In his motion, the lawyer, Yannis Yannides, cited a California law that sets a three-year statute of limitations for prosecutions once the whereabouts of a stolen artifact have been established. (The Getty bought the wreath in 1993 for $1.15 million.) In dismissing the charges, the appeals court appeared to accept his argument that Greek law requires its courts to defer to the statute of limitations in the country where the acquisition was made known. Yannides said: “The rule of law was applied. That’s all we wanted. That’s all we asked for. This may not be a legal triumph, but it brings significant closure to my client.” True has been on trial since late 2005 in Italy on similar charges of conspiring to acquire illicitly excavated antiquities. She has denied the charges in both cases.