RETURNS

The risks of aquiring pieces without proper documentation is highlighted by a number of "just returns", where stolen antiquities are returned to their country of origin, sometimes with encouragement from the courts.

1. In February 1999, the J. Paul Getty Museum returned three pieces to Italy which had been identified as stolen. This was not a court prompted decision. The items returned were:

   - A 5th century B.C. Attic red-figure kylic, considered to be one of the museums finest pieces. Bought in 1983 from a European dealer it was later proved to have been illegally excavated from an Etruscan cemetery at Cerveti.

   - A 2nd century A.D. copy of a head of Diadoumenos by Polykleitos. The museum aquired the piece in 1996, but it was discovered that it had been stolen from an excavation store room in Venosa.

   - The torso of a 2nd century A.D. statue of thr god Mithra. Purchased in 1982 from a European dealer who claimed it had been in an English collection for many years. However, it was pictured in a grainy photograph, intact, as part of the Guistiniani Collection.

2. On 4th March, William I. Koch, a businessman from Boston announced that he was going to return the "Elmali Hoard"- 1661 coins that had been excavated illegally- to Turkey after a decade long court battle. His decision was praised by the Turkish government, who vowed to recover the other coins from the hoard, and he was given a medal to thank him for protecting the coins during the lawsuit.

3. After a court battle in New York, an intricately carved walnut panel from the Sultan's prayer gallery of the 13th century A.D. Great Mosque in Divrigi, a UNESCO heritage site. Thought to have been destroyed with four other panles in a fire in 1997, it was put up for sale in 1998 at the International Asian Art Fair in New York by London art dealer Oliver Hoare. He was sued by the US government for its return under the UNESCO Convention. Three other panels in his possession will also shortly by returned to Turkey.