Ex-Getty curator cleared
An Athens court on Tuesday acquitted a former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles who had been charged with illegally acquiring an ancient Greek golden wreath in the early 1990s. Marion True was acquitted on technical grounds as the charges brought against her had expired under the statute of limitations. True was not in court but her lawyer, Yiannis Yiannidis, said he was satisfied with the ruling as «the rule of law was applied.» True, who has denied any wrongdoing, still faces a string of charges for illegally obtaining dozens of ancient artifacts found in a police raid of her villa on the island of Paros last year. She also faces trial in Italy, on charges of acquiring ancient artifacts that, authorities say, had been stolen or illegally excavated. The 4th-century BC funerary wreath was purchased by the Getty Museum in 1993, when True had been its antiquities curator. In March the museum returned the wreath, along with three more artifacts, after Greek officials presented evidence that it had been illegally removed from Greece before being sold to the museum.
