Getty Museum's Statue Transfer Ends Dispute With Italy

MALIBU (AP) — Italy's decade-old campaign to retrieve antiquities it claims were illegally brought to California will end after the New Year.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will return to Sicily a fifth century B.C. statue of the goddess Aphrodite, the last of 40 artifacts it agreed to return as a result of Italy's crusade.

Sebastiano Missineo, the minister of culture from Sicily, visited the Getty Villa in Malibu on Monday and viewed the statue. He also viewed the marble Agrigento Youth, loaned to the Getty in exchange for a custom earthquake base. He will to tour the Villa's conservation studios and the Getty Museum as well.

Both sides say the discord caused during Italy's antiquities hunt has spawned a new era of cooperation and reciprocation.

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