Displaying items by tag: excavated

A group of ancient frescoed stone slabs have gone on display in Italy for the first time since they were looted by an infamous antiquities trafficker known as “The Captain."

According to Reuters, the artworks, dating from 400 BC, were illegally excavated from the ancient Greek site of Paestum, located near Naples.

Over the years Rockefeller Center has hosted a number of important art installations including Jeff Koons’ (b. 1955) hulking terrier puppy made out of 43 feet worth of flowering plants (2000); Louise Bourgeois’ (1911-2010) Maman and Spiders (2001), which featured the French artist’s famous arachnid creatures; and Takashi Murakami’s (b. 1963) Reversed Double Helix (2003, which included a 30-foot-tall Buddha-like figure, two giant floating balloons, and a forest of mushroom seating.

The impressive public art displays were an integral part of Rockefeller Center until the project was put on hold in 2008 due to the American economy’s dismal state. At the time, the owners of Rockefeller Center were working on a number of major interior restoration projects and felt that spending money on public art during such a stringent time was unwise.

As the economy and public morale slowly regain their footing, Rockefeller Center has decided to re-launch its public art project. With assistance from the Public Art Fund, the first installation will feature nine human-shaped sculptures by the Swiss-born, New York-based artist Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964). The sculptures stand between 16 and 20 feet tall and are made from bluestone that was excavated from a quarry in Pennsylvania. Much of the stone that makes up Rockefeller Center’s sidewalks came from the same region.

Rondinone’s Human Nature will be on view April 23 through June 7, 2013.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will return a terracotta head depicting the Greek god Hades to Sicily. The museum has been working with Italian officials for two years to decide whether or not the artifact should be returned. The Getty purchased the terracotta head from New York collector Maurice Tempelsman for $530,000 in 1985. Tempelsman had originally acquired the piece from the disgraced antiquities dealer Robin Symes.

Officials determined that the terracotta head was originally located in Sicily at a sanctuary site for the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The piece’s provenance was discovered by comparing the head to four terracotta fragments found near the famous and highly looted archaeological site Morgantina in Sicily. It soon came to light that the head was illegally excavated from Morgantina in the early 1970s.

The Getty entered into an agreement with Italy’s Ministry of Culture in 2007 after a long legal battle regarding looted works and the museum’s former curator, Marion True. The Getty now has connections in various parts of Italy to facilitate cultural exchange and has been working closely with Sicilian officials since 2010.

The head of Hades will be on view at the Getty Villa as part of the exhibition The Sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone at Morgantina through January 21, 2013. The work will then join the Getty-organized traveling exhibition Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome before being placed in Sicily’s Museo Archeologico.