Court orders Getty to return priceless bronze

Judge Lorena Mussoni ordered the confiscation of the Statue of a Victorious Youth “currently at the Getty Museum or wherever it is.”

ROME, February 11, 2010 (AFP) - An Italian court Thursday ordered the J. Paul Getty Museum of Los Angeles to return a priceless bronze statue at the centre of a long-running dispute.

Judge Lorena Mussoni ordered the confiscation of the Statue of a Victorious Youth "currently at the Getty Museum or wherever it is."

The work is considered one of the greatest bronze statues to survive from ancient Greece and is attributed to Lysippos, one of the three great sculptors of the period.

Often referred to as the Getty Bronze, the fourth century BC statue resurfaced 10 years after Italian fisherman found it underwater in 1964.

The prestigious museum paid nearly four million dollars for the work at an auction in 1977.

The Getty, set up by US oil billionaire and collector J. Paul Getty and one of the world's richest art museums, insists it never knowingly bought illegally uncovered artefacts.

Under a landmark agreement in 2007, the Getty returned dozens of other works to Italy after a dispute lasting nearly two years.

The two sides agreed to postpone discussion of the fate of the Getty Bronze until the outcome of the legal proceedings in Pesaro, central Italy.