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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 11 - 23 May 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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A Tempest in a Teapot | | | The Symbolic Function | |
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< | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against antiquity smugglers for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafiosi looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. Since private actors, unlike the rest of the world's primarily state-administered art collections, manage the art world in the United States, Italy has resorted to different tactics than the traditional sovereign-to-sovereign peaceable negotiations. With a greater bargaining chip by virtue of its sovereign control of its criminal justice system, Italy has taken Marion True hostage to achieve what it wants to get done but has realized it couldn't otherwise: get all its antiquities back. | >
> | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by inscribing a warning to American museums on True's body. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafiosi looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. Since private actors manage the art world in the United States unlike the rest of the world's primarily state-administered art collections, Italy has resorted to different tactics than the traditional sovereign-to-sovereign peaceable negotiations. With a greater bargaining chip by virtue of a monopoly on its criminal justice system, Italy has taken Marion True hostage to achieve what it wants to get done but has realized it couldn't otherwise: get all its antiquities back. | | | Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals… | | | True’s trial signifies Italy’s failure to successfully prosecute the looters, smuggling rings, and general Mafioso lawlessness. As a Sicilian dilettante of archaeology, Judge Magistrate Raffiotta led the crusade in the unsuccessful prosecutions against the looters in the 1980s. The problem of prosecuting these actors is simple: When the looter operates in unpeopled areas of Sicily during the darkness of night and with few traces, efforts to capture him and prove his guilt are stifled, especially with the Sicilian habit of concealment and corruption. Of the 36 trials presided by Rafiotta, very few turned up a conviction, owing to the lack of evidence. In the late 1980s, Rafiotta moved the Italian cordon sanitaire from around the locals to the foreign buyers on the antiquity market to suffocate the trade. | |
<
< | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. Night looters hand it to the smugglers, who pass Italian customs and give it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from smuggling the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As first to prosecute the curator, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. Whether guilty or innocent is besides the point given Italy's ultimate objective to repatriate, an American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | >
> | This trial marks Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. Night looters hand it to the smugglers, who pass Italian customs and give it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from smuggling the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As first to prosecute the curator, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. Whether guilty or innocent is besides the point since Italy's ultimate objective is to repatriate. | | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause
Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | |
<
< | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. While Italy pursued since 1988 the antiquities drained by smugglers in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, even more than the blemished. These results demonstrate the policy success of prosecuting the private buyers in the American art market largely fueled by typical American cupidity and lawlessness of the capitalist ideology. | >
> | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. While Italy pursued since 1988 the antiquities drained by smugglers in traditional Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, even more than the blemished. These results demonstrate the policy success of prosecuting the private buyers in the American art market largely fueled by typical American cupidity. | | | | |
<
< | Yet, Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. Blasting the case on loudspeaker in almost every professional international news source from the New York Times to Le Monde to the New Yorker, the government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government could have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. | >
> | Nevertheless, Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. Blasting the case on loudspeaker in almost every professional international news source from the New York Times to Le Monde to the New Yorker, the government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government could have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. | | | A War Offensive | |
<
< | True’s trial is a productive counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians on the ground illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers, which America lacks. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy must deal with private parties in the American art market, meaning that it must create different incentive structures, such as the risk of criminal indictment, to persuade private entities to respond. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a successful political tool in achieving vittoria against the private museum outlaws. The government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | >
> | True’s trial is a productive counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians on the ground illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers, which America lacks. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy must deal with private parties in the American art market, meaning that it must create different incentive structures to persuade private entities to respond, including the threat of criminal investigation. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a successful political tool in achieving vittoria against the private museum outlaws. The government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | | | The Symbolic Trial | |
<
< | The significance of a symbolic trial concerns the role of the state to exercise its sovereign power to take an individual hostage for the sake of signaling a policy shift - a function of the criminal trial supplementing the purpose of fact finding. True’s trial represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (997 Words) | >
> | The significance of a symbolic trial concerns the role of the state to exercise its sovereign power to take an individual hostage for the sake of signaling a policy shift - a function of the criminal trial supplementing the purpose of fact finding. True’s trial represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its policy goals. (997 Words) | | | -- By JesseCreed - 09 Feb 2008 |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 10 - 29 Mar 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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A Tempest in a Teapot | | | The Symbolic Function | |
<
< | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against smuggled antiquities for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals.
- You would be more believable using the oracular tone employed here if you would accept Italian linguistic reality, in which "Mafioso" is a singular masculine noun (plural "Mafiosi"), and "Mafia" is both a feminine collective noun and an adjective.
Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. | >
> | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against antiquity smugglers for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafiosi looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. Since private actors, unlike the rest of the world's primarily state-administered art collections, manage the art world in the United States, Italy has resorted to different tactics than the traditional sovereign-to-sovereign peaceable negotiations. With a greater bargaining chip by virtue of its sovereign control of its criminal justice system, Italy has taken Marion True hostage to achieve what it wants to get done but has realized it couldn't otherwise: get all its antiquities back. | | | Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals… | | | True’s trial signifies Italy’s failure to successfully prosecute the looters, smuggling rings, and general Mafioso lawlessness. As a Sicilian dilettante of archaeology, Judge Magistrate Raffiotta led the crusade in the unsuccessful prosecutions against the looters in the 1980s. The problem of prosecuting these actors is simple: When the looter operates in unpeopled areas of Sicily during the darkness of night and with few traces, efforts to capture him and prove his guilt are stifled, especially with the Sicilian habit of concealment and corruption. Of the 36 trials presided by Rafiotta, very few turned up a conviction, owing to the lack of evidence. In the late 1980s, Rafiotta moved the Italian cordon sanitaire from around the locals to the foreign buyers on the antiquity market to suffocate the trade. | |
<
< | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. Night looters hand it to the smugglers, who pass Italian customs and give it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from smuggling the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As the only one prosecuting the buyer, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement.
- This makes no sense whatever. If the prosecutors' allegations are founded, Marion True is to Italy what Robert Vesco or Marc Rich were to the United States: a fugitive offender. The common law prohibition on criminal adjudication in absentia is not a human right, it's an artifact of common law history, now doing at least as much harm as good owing to the courts' fervent embrace in the last fifteen years of "kidnapping in" as a basis for jurisdiction to adjudicate. What issue of "masquerading" can there be when a government chooses, for whatever mixture of reasons, to prosecute offenses committed within its jurisdiction? Even if True had merely conspired with illegal exporters without ever leaving Los Angeles there would be sufficient basis for criminal prosecution in our law.
| >
> | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. Night looters hand it to the smugglers, who pass Italian customs and give it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from smuggling the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As first to prosecute the curator, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. Whether guilty or innocent is besides the point given Italy's ultimate objective to repatriate, an American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause
Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | |
<
< | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. While Italy pursued since 1988 the antiquities drained by smugglers in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, even more than the blemished.
- This would quite rightly be considered demonstrative of policy success by any prosecutor in the world. Pressure is plainly being applied to the right places when the aims of the State with respect to non-resident parties who are difficult to regulate are being spontaneously achieved. Are we supposed to feel that this is a problem regardless of whether True is factually guilty?
| >
> | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. While Italy pursued since 1988 the antiquities drained by smugglers in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, even more than the blemished. These results demonstrate the policy success of prosecuting the private buyers in the American art market largely fueled by typical American cupidity and lawlessness of the capitalist ideology. | | | | |
<
< | Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. The government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government would have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. | >
> | Yet, Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. Blasting the case on loudspeaker in almost every professional international news source from the New York Times to Le Monde to the New Yorker, the government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government could have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. | | | A War Offensive | |
<
< | True’s trial is a counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy knows that charging an American with a crime represents a diplomatic sticky wicket for the political executive branch in the US. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a political tool in achieving vittoria against the museum outlaws. The government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | >
> | True’s trial is a productive counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians on the ground illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers, which America lacks. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy must deal with private parties in the American art market, meaning that it must create different incentive structures, such as the risk of criminal indictment, to persuade private entities to respond. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a successful political tool in achieving vittoria against the private museum outlaws. The government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | | | | |
<
< | A Modern Show Trial? | >
> | The Symbolic Trial | | | | |
<
< | The significance of a symbolic trial concerns the role of the state to abuse its power by assailing individual rights for a greater national good. The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the word itself in our modern lexicon. The Bolshevik state, including the Trotskyites, perceived these trials as progress in the march of history. They functioned less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the death and resurrection of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. To a far lesser degree, True’s trial also represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (997 Words) | >
> | The significance of a symbolic trial concerns the role of the state to exercise its sovereign power to take an individual hostage for the sake of signaling a policy shift - a function of the criminal trial supplementing the purpose of fact finding. True’s trial represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (997 Words) | | | -- By JesseCreed - 09 Feb 2008
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<
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- I don't understand at all the legal analysis in this essay, most particularly the conclusion on the subject of show trials. Italian policy-makers can quite rightly assume that any social objective requiring control over Mafia activity in Sicily or the southern regions of the mainland cannot be achieved on the ground. The decision to control fences and thieves by pressuring buyers is perfectly legitimate: the Dutch police do it with respect to bicycle thieves in Amsterdam, and there's nothing to prevent the Italians or the Turks from taking the same step in the art market. Either a particular defendant has, for example, conspired with thieves and their fences in the process of buying for museums, or she has not. If she has, what tenderness of spirit on our part would justify claiming that such a step is a "show trial"? What does it show beyond a determination to undertake what works in the achievement of a legitimate national purpose? The essay assumes by huffing and puffing and acting all knowledgeable and cosmopolitan that it can somehow cause these questions not to be asked. But if you want to hold up the exculpatory side of the question, you've got to meet the real problems.
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 9 - 23 Mar 2008 - Main.EbenMoglen
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A Tempest in a Teapot | | | The Symbolic Function | |
<
< | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against smuggled antiquities for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. | >
> | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against smuggled antiquities for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals.
- You would be more believable using the oracular tone employed here if you would accept Italian linguistic reality, in which "Mafioso" is a singular masculine noun (plural "Mafiosi"), and "Mafia" is both a feminine collective noun and an adjective.
Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. | | | Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals… | | | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. Night looters hand it to the smugglers, who pass Italian customs and give it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from smuggling the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As the only one prosecuting the buyer, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | |
>
> |
- This makes no sense whatever. If the prosecutors' allegations are founded, Marion True is to Italy what Robert Vesco or Marc Rich were to the United States: a fugitive offender. The common law prohibition on criminal adjudication in absentia is not a human right, it's an artifact of common law history, now doing at least as much harm as good owing to the courts' fervent embrace in the last fifteen years of "kidnapping in" as a basis for jurisdiction to adjudicate. What issue of "masquerading" can there be when a government chooses, for whatever mixture of reasons, to prosecute offenses committed within its jurisdiction? Even if True had merely conspired with illegal exporters without ever leaving Los Angeles there would be sufficient basis for criminal prosecution in our law.
| | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause
Powerful Symbol for Repatriation
True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. While Italy pursued since 1988 the antiquities drained by smugglers in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, even more than the blemished. | |
>
> |
- This would quite rightly be considered demonstrative of policy success by any prosecutor in the world. Pressure is plainly being applied to the right places when the aims of the State with respect to non-resident parties who are difficult to regulate are being spontaneously achieved. Are we supposed to feel that this is a problem regardless of whether True is factually guilty?
| | | Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. The government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government would have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government.
A War Offensive | | | The significance of a symbolic trial concerns the role of the state to abuse its power by assailing individual rights for a greater national good. The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the word itself in our modern lexicon. The Bolshevik state, including the Trotskyites, perceived these trials as progress in the march of history. They functioned less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the death and resurrection of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. To a far lesser degree, True’s trial also represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (997 Words) | |
<
< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | -- By JesseCreed - 09 Feb 2008 | |
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< | You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:
# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, JesseCreed | | | | |
<
< | Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list | | | \ No newline at end of file | |
>
> |
- I don't understand at all the legal analysis in this essay, most particularly the conclusion on the subject of show trials. Italian policy-makers can quite rightly assume that any social objective requiring control over Mafia activity in Sicily or the southern regions of the mainland cannot be achieved on the ground. The decision to control fences and thieves by pressuring buyers is perfectly legitimate: the Dutch police do it with respect to bicycle thieves in Amsterdam, and there's nothing to prevent the Italians or the Turks from taking the same step in the art market. Either a particular defendant has, for example, conspired with thieves and their fences in the process of buying for museums, or she has not. If she has, what tenderness of spirit on our part would justify claiming that such a step is a "show trial"? What does it show beyond a determination to undertake what works in the achievement of a legitimate national purpose? The essay assumes by huffing and puffing and acting all knowledgeable and cosmopolitan that it can somehow cause these questions not to be asked. But if you want to hold up the exculpatory side of the question, you've got to meet the real problems.
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 8 - 18 Mar 2008 - Main.IanSullivan
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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A Tempest in a Teapot | | | To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:
# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, JesseCreed | |
<
< | | | | Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 7 - 05 Mar 2008 - Main.IanSullivan
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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A Tempest in a Teapot | | | To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line:
# * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, JesseCreed | |
>
> | | | | Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 6 - 14 Feb 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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< | A Tempest in a Teapot, or the Symbolic Function of Criminal Trials | >
> | A Tempest in a Teapot | | |
The Symbolic Function | |
<
< | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring whose goal was to loot, excavate, and export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against illegally exported antiquities for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two social forces: Italy's unsuccessful enforcement efforts at home and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim Italy's patrimony illegally abroad. | >
> | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring illegally export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against smuggled antiquities for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two forces: unsuccessful enforcement efforts within Italy and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim her patrimony illegally abroad. | | | Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals… | | | True’s trial signifies Italy’s failure to successfully prosecute the looters, smuggling rings, and general Mafioso lawlessness. As a Sicilian dilettante of archaeology, Judge Magistrate Raffiotta led the crusade in the unsuccessful prosecutions against the looters in the 1980s. The problem of prosecuting these actors is simple: When the looter operates in unpeopled areas of Sicily during the darkness of night and with few traces, efforts to capture him and prove his guilt are stifled, especially with the Sicilian habit of concealment and corruption. Of the 36 trials presided by Rafiotta, very few turned up a conviction, owing to the lack of evidence. In the late 1980s, Rafiotta moved the Italian cordon sanitaire from around the locals to the foreign buyers on the antiquity market to suffocate the trade. | |
<
< | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. The night looter hands it to the smuggler, who passes Italian customs and gives it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from the smuggling of the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As the only one prosecuting the buyer, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | >
> | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. Night looters hand it to the smugglers, who pass Italian customs and give it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from smuggling the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As the only one prosecuting the buyer, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause
Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | |
<
< | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. By ineffectively enforcing the laws at home for decades, Italy was drained of many ancient works. While Italy pursued these antiquities since 1988 in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, some returning more than the blemished. | >
> | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. While Italy pursued since 1988 the antiquities drained by smugglers in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, even more than the blemished. | | | Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. The government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government would have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government.
A War Offensive | |
<
< | True’s trial is a counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy knows that charging an American with a crime represents a diplomatic sticky wicket for the political executive branch in the US. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a political tool in achieving vittoria against the museum outlaws. Indeed, the government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | >
> | True’s trial is a counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy knows that charging an American with a crime represents a diplomatic sticky wicket for the political executive branch in the US. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a political tool in achieving vittoria against the museum outlaws. The government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | | | A Modern Show Trial? | |
<
< | The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the word itself in our modern lexicon. The Bolshevik state, including the Trotskyites, perceived these trials as progress in the march of history. They functioned less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the death and resurrection of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. To a far lesser degree, True’s trial also represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (995 words) | >
> | The significance of a symbolic trial concerns the role of the state to abuse its power by assailing individual rights for a greater national good. The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the word itself in our modern lexicon. The Bolshevik state, including the Trotskyites, perceived these trials as progress in the march of history. They functioned less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the death and resurrection of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. To a far lesser degree, True’s trial also represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (997 Words) | | |
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 5 - 14 Feb 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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<
< | I am going to take up one purpose of the criminal trial other than fact finding with respect to the cases of stolen antiquities, repatriation, and the indictment against the curator of the Getty. These criminal proceedings offer themselves as little more than a Kafkaesque incantation to persuade art collectors and museums worldwide to repatriate suspicious antiquities even if the real heart of the issue is problem with lawless, mafioso Sicily, new technologies, and ineffective law enforcement in the area. In light of the prejudiced Italian authorities prosecuting the case against an American, this purpose of the trial, then, is something like a show trial, indeed a symbolic trial. My outline below contains far too much, so I plan to purge a lot of material as the idea takes shape.
Paper Title (TBD) | >
> | A Tempest in a Teapot, or the Symbolic Function of Criminal Trials | | | | |
<
< | Introduction: Two Interrelated Functions of Criminal Trials
As the curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Marion True was an unlikely figure to find herself in the midst of Italian criminal proceedings. She is charged for conspiracy in connection with a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring whose goal was to loot, excavate, and export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. Since 1939, the the cultural patrimony laws have prohibited such activity. As the law decrees, all antiquities discovered on Italian soil become the property of the Italian state who holds the items in trust for the Italian people. Nationalism is a crucial motivating factor in the existence and enforcement of such a law. Hence, it is no surprise that the original law was enacted in the heat of the patriotic fire raging during Benito Mussolinni's Fascist rule. This paper argues that the Italian government has, not substituted, but supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against looters and buyers. This purpose, then, takes two forms. First, True's trial functions as a message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it also serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents less a belief in her factual guilt, more the culmination of two social forces: Italy's unsuccessful enforcement efforts at home and a resurging nationalistic fervor to reclaim Italy's cultural patrimony. | >
> | The Symbolic Function | | | | |
<
< | The Problem of Looters, or The First 'Purpose' of Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals to Foreign Museum Professionals | >
> | Marion True, the former Getty curator, was charged for conspiracy in violation of the cultural patrimony laws for allegedly helping a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring whose goal was to loot, excavate, and export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. This paper argues that the Italian government has supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against illegally exported antiquities for two reasons. First, True's trial functions as an iconic message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the Mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents a historical culmination of two social forces: Italy's unsuccessful enforcement efforts at home and a resurging nationalist fervor to reclaim Italy's patrimony illegally abroad. | | | | |
>
> | Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals… | | | | |
<
< | Birth of a Black Market in Morgantina, Sicily | >
> | ...in the Black Market... | | | | |
<
< | The Italian government’s shift in emphasis from prosecuting local looters to foreign museum professionals such as True has its origins in a surprising technological development, the portable metal detector. Cheap and easy to find, these devices proliferated in Sicily in the 1970s and allowed local smuggling rings to interfere with the more capital intensive archaeological digs conducted by professional research teams. Sicily represents a largely Mafia-controlled enclave marred by bribery, corruption, and a different form of ‘lawfulness’ than the Western legal system on the mainland. With potential revenue for such antiquities as the $18 million Aphrodite statue, the Mafia is believed to have contributed to the illicit lootings with the help of these cheaper technologies. Orazio di Simone, True’s alleged co-conspirator in smuggling the Aphrodite, has been repeatedly accused of having ties to the Mafia. | >
> | The Italian government’s shift in emphasis from prosecuting local looters to foreign museum professionals originates in a surprising technological development, the portable metal detector. Cheap and accessible, these devices proliferated in Sicily in the 1970s and allowed local smuggling rings to interfere with the well-financed archaeological digs conducted by professional teams. Sicily constitutes a Mafia-controlled enclave commanded by the lawlessness of bribery and corruption. With new potential revenue from these million dollar statues, the Mafia is believed to have contributed to the illicit lootings with the help of these cheaper technologies. Orazio di Simone, True’s alleged co-conspirator, has been repeatedly accused of having ties to the Mafia. | | | | |
<
< | The Other Side of the Trial, or the Consistent Failure in Convicting the Proximate Offenders | >
> | …to Foreign Museum Professionals | | | | |
<
< | True’s trial signifies Italy’s failure in successfully prosecuting the looters, smuggling rings, and general Mafioso ‘lawfulness.’ As a villa owner in Sicily and writer of a tourist guide to the archaeological sites, Judge Magistrate Raffiotta led the crusade in the unsuccessful prosecutions against the looters in the 1980s. The problem of prosecuting these actors is simple: When the looter operates in largely uninhabited areas of Sicily during the darkness of night and with few accomplices and technologies, efforts to capture him and prove his guilt are stifled. Of the 36 trials administered by Rafiotta, very few turned up a conviction owing to the lack of evidence. In the late 1980s, Rafiotta moved the Italian cordon sanitaire from around the local criminals to the foreign museum professionals with ties to ‘dirty’ antiquities in an effort to cut off the trade. | >
> | True’s trial signifies Italy’s failure to successfully prosecute the looters, smuggling rings, and general Mafioso lawlessness. As a Sicilian dilettante of archaeology, Judge Magistrate Raffiotta led the crusade in the unsuccessful prosecutions against the looters in the 1980s. The problem of prosecuting these actors is simple: When the looter operates in unpeopled areas of Sicily during the darkness of night and with few traces, efforts to capture him and prove his guilt are stifled, especially with the Sicilian habit of concealment and corruption. Of the 36 trials presided by Rafiotta, very few turned up a conviction, owing to the lack of evidence. In the late 1980s, Rafiotta moved the Italian cordon sanitaire from around the locals to the foreign buyers on the antiquity market to suffocate the trade. | | | | |
<
< | The government could decide to offer these looters a “salvage” reward for turning in antiquities yet correctly refuses to follow that path. The reward would encourage the more unsophisticated excavation projects of these looters, which might destroy or decay the antiquities and disorganize the complex excavation projects. | >
> | This trial emblematizes Italy’s shift to discrediting the antiquity buyers after fifty years of non-enforcement beyond the Italian frontier. The night looter hands it to the smuggler, who passes Italian customs and gives it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. Far from the smuggling of the artifacts, the foreign buyer bears the legal impact of enforcing cultural patrimony laws in Italy. As the only one prosecuting the buyer, True’s trial masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | | | | |
<
< | True’s trial intends to emblematize the Italian government’s new focus on discrediting the buyers of these antiquities after years of non-enforcement of the cultural patrimony laws. The night looter hands it to the smuggler, who passes Italian customs and gives it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. The farthest removed from the actual looting of the artifacts, the buyer now bears the brunt of the work in Italy to enforce these cultural patrimony laws against the night looters and Mafioso conspirators. As the only one prosecuting a foreign museum professional, True’s trial cleverly masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has unwittingly transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | >
> | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause | | | | |
<
< | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause, or the Second 'Purpose' of Persuading the Buyers to Repatriate Mercilessly | >
> | Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | | | | |
<
< | True's Trial as a Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | >
> | True’s trial signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring antiquities home. By ineffectively enforcing the laws at home for decades, Italy was drained of many ancient works. While Italy pursued these antiquities since 1988 in Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment in 2006 has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities, some returning more than the blemished. | | | | |
<
< | True’s trial essentially signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring home antiquities abroad. By ineffectively enforcing the laws at home, Italy was drained of many ancient works over the decades. While Italy had been pursuing these antiquities for over two decades in true Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities. The Metropolitan Museum even ordered a freeze on all acquisitions of antiquities. | >
> | Italy’s successful efforts to get publicity for a criminal trial against an American corrupt its legitimacy. Less than a disinterested state prosecuting a foreigner, Italy has embroiled True in an issue of nationalist politics. The government has summarily spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her or offering proof. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government would have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement in the underworld, a possibility as likely as hers. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, whose facts we read little in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. | | | | |
<
< | Italian publicity of a criminal trial against an American corrupts its legitimacy. The Italian government is certainly not a disinterested prosecutor in a case against a foreigner where the issue cuts at the heart of nationalist politics. The government has on record spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her yet or even providing factual assertions. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government would have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement which seems as likely as hers. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, of which we read little of the testimonial details in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless, hence Also sprach Zarathustra. | >
> | A War Offensive | | | | |
<
< | True's Trial as a War Offensive | >
> | True’s trial is a counteroffensive against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italians illegally smuggle the antiquities. Warlike language is befitting where the Italian government threatened to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when it remained hesitant to negotiate even after the indictment. The Italian government understood Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador as a witness to the negotiations to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as cultural, fit for cultural ministers. This misbelief belies two problems. First, Italy knows that charging an American with a crime represents a diplomatic sticky wicket for the political executive branch in the US. Second, the Italian government confessedly discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a specific statue included. True’s trial represents a political tool in achieving vittoria against the museum outlaws. Indeed, the government recently declared this achievement in an exhibition entitled Nostoi, Greek for homecoming. | | | | |
<
< | True’s trial is more than about fact finding, it is an offensive in a war against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italian citizens loot, smuggle, counterfeit documents for, and sell the antiquities. Describing it as an offensive is apposite where the Italian government threatens to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when the institution remains hesitant despite the indictment. Likewise, it felt threatened by attorney Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador to witness the negotiations. The Italian government understood this move to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as largely cultural, to be dealt by cultural ministers. This characterization misses two problems. First, the Italian government knows that charging a foreign citizen with a crime represents a diplomatic measure largely political. Second, the Italian government confessed that it discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a contested statue at stake. It is and always has been a political issue, and True’s trial represents a political tool in achieving vittoria against the museum outlaws. Indeed, the government declared such an achievement in an exhibition recently entitled Nostoi, a word signifying the peril afflicting the Greek heroes’ return after the Trojan War. | >
> | A Modern Show Trial? | | | | |
<
< | Conclusion: A Modern Show Trial | >
> | The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the word itself in our modern lexicon. The Bolshevik state, including the Trotskyites, perceived these trials as progress in the march of history. They functioned less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the death and resurrection of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. To a far lesser degree, True’s trial also represents a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, Italy is successfully fulfilling its destiny. (995 words) | | | | |
<
< | The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the show trial itself in the modern lexicon. In many instances, the Bolshevik state and the accused saw these show trials as a step forward in the march of history. The trials served less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the conversion and rebirth of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. In a much less pernicious manner and on a far smaller scale, True’s trial also functions as a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, the Italian state has fulfilled its destiny to have all its antiquities returned home. She is, quite literally, on show for all the world to discover nothing, yet see everything. | | | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 4 - 12 Feb 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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I am going to take up one purpose of the criminal trial other than fact finding with respect to the cases of stolen antiquities, repatriation, and the indictment against the curator of the Getty. These criminal proceedings offer themselves as little more than a Kafkaesque incantation to persuade art collectors and museums worldwide to repatriate suspicious antiquities even if the real heart of the issue is problem with lawless, mafioso Sicily, new technologies, and ineffective law enforcement in the area. In light of the prejudiced Italian authorities prosecuting the case against an American, this purpose of the trial, then, is something like a show trial, indeed a symbolic trial. My outline below contains far too much, so I plan to purge a lot of material as the idea takes shape. | | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause, or the Second 'Purpose' of Persuading the Buyers to Repatriate Mercilessly
True's Trial as a Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | |
<
< | True's Trial as an Offensive against Cultural Invasions, or the Language of War | >
> | True’s trial essentially signifies a radical diplomatic effort to bring home antiquities abroad. By ineffectively enforcing the laws at home, Italy was drained of many ancient works over the decades. While Italy had been pursuing these antiquities for over two decades in true Mediterranean languor, True’s indictment has shown, faute de mieux, more success. Since then, at least four cultural institutions in America hurriedly agreed to return allegedly looted antiquities. The Metropolitan Museum even ordered a freeze on all acquisitions of antiquities.
Italian publicity of a criminal trial against an American corrupts its legitimacy. The Italian government is certainly not a disinterested prosecutor in a case against a foreigner where the issue cuts at the heart of nationalist politics. The government has on record spoken of her ‘obvious guilt’ without having tried her yet or even providing factual assertions. If fact finding were the only purpose, the Italian government would have indicted far more museum directors to discover the extent of their involvement which seems as likely as hers. Its main purpose is to turn the content-free case of True’s trial, of which we read little of the testimonial details in the newspaper, into a powerfully symbolic cause célèbre inspiring a new alacrity among museums to negotiate with the Italian government. Symbolism mystifies our perception of the ‘real world’ to empower what is otherwise powerless, hence Also sprach Zarathustra.
True's Trial as a War Offensive
True’s trial is more than about fact finding, it is an offensive in a war against American cultural ‘invasions’ despite the paradox that Italian citizens loot, smuggle, counterfeit documents for, and sell the antiquities. Describing it as an offensive is apposite where the Italian government threatens to order a ‘cultural embargo’ against the Getty when the institution remains hesitant despite the indictment. Likewise, it felt threatened by attorney Robert Olson’s invitation to the American ambassador to witness the negotiations. The Italian government understood this move to represent a form of political pressure over an issue it regards as largely cultural, to be dealt by cultural ministers. This characterization misses two problems. First, the Italian government knows that charging a foreign citizen with a crime represents a diplomatic measure largely political. Second, the Italian government confessed that it discontinued negotiations with the Getty at the brink of resolution because the political environment in Italy precluded agreement without a contested statue at stake. It is and always has been a political issue, and True’s trial represents a political tool in achieving vittoria against the museum outlaws. Indeed, the government declared such an achievement in an exhibition recently entitled Nostoi, a word signifying the peril afflicting the Greek heroes’ return after the Trojan War.
Conclusion: A Modern Show Trial
The Soviet show trials under Stalin define the show trial itself in the modern lexicon. In many instances, the Bolshevik state and the accused saw these show trials as a step forward in the march of history. The trials served less as a factual inquiry than as a historical event to solidify the conversion and rebirth of the collectivist soul of communist Russia. In a much less pernicious manner and on a far smaller scale, True’s trial also functions as a historical event to achieve the goal of repatriation after domestic failures to contain the cultural items. Whether True is innocent or guilty, the Italian state has fulfilled its destiny to have all its antiquities returned home. She is, quite literally, on show for all the world to discover nothing, yet see everything. | | | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 3 - 11 Feb 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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I am going to take up one purpose of the criminal trial other than fact finding with respect to the cases of stolen antiquities, repatriation, and the indictment against the curator of the Getty. These criminal proceedings offer themselves as little more than a Kafkaesque incantation to persuade art collectors and museums worldwide to repatriate suspicious antiquities even if the real heart of the issue is problem with lawless, mafioso Sicily, new technologies, and ineffective law enforcement in the area. In light of the prejudiced Italian authorities prosecuting the case against an American, this purpose of the trial, then, is something like a show trial, indeed a symbolic trial. My outline below contains far too much, so I plan to purge a lot of material as the idea takes shape. | | |
Birth of a Black Market in Morgantina, Sicily | |
>
> | The Italian government’s shift in emphasis from prosecuting local looters to foreign museum professionals such as True has its origins in a surprising technological development, the portable metal detector. Cheap and easy to find, these devices proliferated in Sicily in the 1970s and allowed local smuggling rings to interfere with the more capital intensive archaeological digs conducted by professional research teams. Sicily represents a largely Mafia-controlled enclave marred by bribery, corruption, and a different form of ‘lawfulness’ than the Western legal system on the mainland. With potential revenue for such antiquities as the $18 million Aphrodite statue, the Mafia is believed to have contributed to the illicit lootings with the help of these cheaper technologies. Orazio di Simone, True’s alleged co-conspirator in smuggling the Aphrodite, has been repeatedly accused of having ties to the Mafia. | | | The Other Side of the Trial, or the Consistent Failure in Convicting the Proximate Offenders | |
>
> | True’s trial signifies Italy’s failure in successfully prosecuting the looters, smuggling rings, and general Mafioso ‘lawfulness.’ As a villa owner in Sicily and writer of a tourist guide to the archaeological sites, Judge Magistrate Raffiotta led the crusade in the unsuccessful prosecutions against the looters in the 1980s. The problem of prosecuting these actors is simple: When the looter operates in largely uninhabited areas of Sicily during the darkness of night and with few accomplices and technologies, efforts to capture him and prove his guilt are stifled. Of the 36 trials administered by Rafiotta, very few turned up a conviction owing to the lack of evidence. In the late 1980s, Rafiotta moved the Italian cordon sanitaire from around the local criminals to the foreign museum professionals with ties to ‘dirty’ antiquities in an effort to cut off the trade.
The government could decide to offer these looters a “salvage” reward for turning in antiquities yet correctly refuses to follow that path. The reward would encourage the more unsophisticated excavation projects of these looters, which might destroy or decay the antiquities and disorganize the complex excavation projects.
True’s trial intends to emblematize the Italian government’s new focus on discrediting the buyers of these antiquities after years of non-enforcement of the cultural patrimony laws. The night looter hands it to the smuggler, who passes Italian customs and gives it to the dealer in Switzerland, who sells it to an American buyer, who clears it with American customs. The farthest removed from the actual looting of the artifacts, the buyer now bears the brunt of the work in Italy to enforce these cultural patrimony laws against the night looters and Mafioso conspirators. As the only one prosecuting a foreign museum professional, True’s trial cleverly masquerades under the promise of her factual guilt its other purpose of dispiriting looters and enforcing Italian laws at home. An American has unwittingly transformed into utilitarian food for Italian legal enforcement. | | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause, or the Second 'Purpose' of Persuading the Buyers to Repatriate Mercilessly
True's Trial as a Powerful Symbol for Repatriation |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 2 - 11 Feb 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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I am going to take up one purpose of the criminal trial other than fact finding with respect to the cases of stolen antiquities, repatriation, and the indictment against the curator of the Getty. These criminal proceedings offer themselves as little more than a Kafkaesque incantation to persuade art collectors and museums worldwide to repatriate suspicious antiquities even if the real heart of the issue is problem with lawless, mafioso Sicily, new technologies, and ineffective law enforcement in the area. In light of the prejudiced Italian authorities prosecuting the case against an American, this purpose of the trial, then, is something like a show trial, indeed a symbolic trial. My outline below contains far too much, so I plan to purge a lot of material as the idea takes shape.
Paper Title (TBD) | |
<
< | The Problem of Looters, or The First 'Purpose' of Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals to Foreign Museum Professionals | >
> | | | | | |
<
< | Birth of a Black Market in Morgantina, Sicily | >
> | Introduction: Two Interrelated Functions of Criminal Trials | | | | |
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< | New Technology Leads to New Problems: Portable Metal Detectors in 1970s | >
> | As the curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Marion True was an unlikely figure to find herself in the midst of Italian criminal proceedings. She is charged for conspiracy in connection with a Sicilian antiquities smuggling ring whose goal was to loot, excavate, and export the Aphrodite statute out of Italy. Since 1939, the the cultural patrimony laws have prohibited such activity. As the law decrees, all antiquities discovered on Italian soil become the property of the Italian state who holds the items in trust for the Italian people. Nationalism is a crucial motivating factor in the existence and enforcement of such a law. Hence, it is no surprise that the original law was enacted in the heat of the patriotic fire raging during Benito Mussolinni's Fascist rule. This paper argues that the Italian government has, not substituted, but supplemented the purpose of fact finding in criminal trials by transforming True's trial into a symbol of a cultural crusade against looters and buyers. This purpose, then, takes two forms. First, True's trial functions as a message to cultural institutions that the Italian government is shifting the emphasis of anti-smuggling enforcement from the mafioso looters in Sicily to American museum professionals. Second, it also serves to hurry American museums to repatriate the suspicious antiquities in their collections. True's trial represents less a belief in her factual guilt, more the culmination of two social forces: Italy's unsuccessful enforcement efforts at home and a resurging nationalistic fervor to reclaim Italy's cultural patrimony. | | | | |
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< | Role of the Mafia in the smuggling rings | >
> | The Problem of Looters, or The First 'Purpose' of Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals to Foreign Museum Professionals | | | | |
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< | Italian non-enforcement of smuggling laws creates and reinforces museum industry's assumptions in the 1980s | | | | |
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> | Birth of a Black Market in Morgantina, Sicily | | | The Other Side of the Trial, or the Consistent Failure in Convicting the Proximate Offenders | |
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< | The Suspicious Role of Judge Magistrate Silvio Raffiotta: owner of house in Morgantina, Sicily; writer of archaeological guidebook for the area. In 1980s, he turned the spotlight, with the help ofprosecutor Ferri, West to American buyers because of the difficulty in prosecuting the looters. Little known to most of the world, Raffiotta was charged with being associated with a smuggler ring at the turn of the century. What could be a cause for his new affectation for prosecuting American museums given his close connection to Morgantina, smuggler rings, and perhaps even the Mafia?
The true culprits in this trial are more directly these tomb raiders of cultural patrimony than what may be a 'bona fide' purchaser. The purchaser falls last in a drawn out chain of commercial exchanges. The night looter -> the smuggler -> Italian customers -> the dealer -> U.S. customs -> the purchaser.
Thus, if the goal of the Italian government is to stifle the black market in antiquities dealings, the trial against True is a circuitous route to these more proximate offenders.
The failure of Italian local enforcement and customs officials should not bring the force of the state against a foreign professional. Other methods of regulation include restrictions on portable metal detectors, more cunning techniques of law enforcement, and shifting the burden of illegality from the supplying smugglers to the buying collectors. True's trial sends a threatening message to antiquity buyers to provide greater due diligence.
| | | A Martyr for Another Country's Cause, or the Second 'Purpose' of Persuading the Buyers to Repatriate Mercilessly
True's Trial as a Powerful Symbol for Repatriation | |
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< | True's character shows a commitment to cultural patrimony laws, including, in the 1990s, testimony in Congress supporting US enforcement of Italian export laws. Her integrity has general approval in the industry.
The publicity surrounding her indictment has been overwhelming across the United States and worldwide. | | | True's Trial as an Offensive against Cultural Invasions, or the Language of War | |
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< | With True in the midst of criminal proceedings, the Italian government has been leading an offensive effort to reclaim works exported after the cultural patrimony law passed in 1939 (interestingly, at the dawn of World War II).
New deals reached with the Met, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Princeton Art Museum, and the Getty as well as the first private collector
Italian government's propaganda over True's case sends the message that her guilt is so obvious that other museums believe it necessary to repatriate items.
The Italian government literally declares "vittoria morale" in December with the opening of an exhibition featuring the repatriated items and reaffirms True's guilt in the same breath, without having even started the conviction proceedings.
When Italian government feels True's trial is not putting enough coercive pressure on museums, it resorts to threatening a "cultural embargo" on American museums.
The Italian government's innocence: How dare the Getty show up in Italy with lawyers! Instead of handling this dispute among cultural ministers, the Italian government feels threatened by Robert Olson, the big-shot founder of Munger, Toller, & Olson, who, they believe, attempted to politicize the issue by asking the American ambassador to attend negotiations. They must have forgotten that, at every moment of this dispute, lies in the background an American citizen on trial! | | | | |
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< | | | | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | |
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< | Paper Title (TBD) | | | -- By JesseCreed - 09 Feb 2008 |
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JesseCreed-FirstPaper 1 - 09 Feb 2008 - Main.JesseCreed
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper%25" |
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I am going to take up one purpose of the criminal trial other than fact finding with respect to the cases of stolen antiquities, repatriation, and the indictment against the curator of the Getty. These criminal proceedings offer themselves as little more than a Kafkaesque incantation to persuade art collectors and museums worldwide to repatriate suspicious antiquities even if the real heart of the issue is problem with lawless, mafioso Sicily, new technologies, and ineffective law enforcement in the area. In light of the prejudiced Italian authorities prosecuting the case against an American, this purpose of the trial, then, is something like a show trial, indeed a symbolic trial. My outline below contains far too much, so I plan to purge a lot of material as the idea takes shape.
Paper Title (TBD)
The Problem of Looters, or The First 'Purpose' of Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals to Foreign Museum Professionals
Birth of a Black Market in Morgantina, Sicily
New Technology Leads to New Problems: Portable Metal Detectors in 1970s
Role of the Mafia in the smuggling rings
Italian non-enforcement of smuggling laws creates and reinforces museum industry's assumptions in the 1980s
The Other Side of the Trial, or the Consistent Failure in Convicting the Proximate Offenders
The Suspicious Role of Judge Magistrate Silvio Raffiotta: owner of house in Morgantina, Sicily; writer of archaeological guidebook for the area. In 1980s, he turned the spotlight, with the help ofprosecutor Ferri, West to American buyers because of the difficulty in prosecuting the looters. Little known to most of the world, Raffiotta was charged with being associated with a smuggler ring at the turn of the century. What could be a cause for his new affectation for prosecuting American museums given his close connection to Morgantina, smuggler rings, and perhaps even the Mafia?
The true culprits in this trial are more directly these tomb raiders of cultural patrimony than what may be a 'bona fide' purchaser. The purchaser falls last in a drawn out chain of commercial exchanges. The night looter -> the smuggler -> Italian customers -> the dealer -> U.S. customs -> the purchaser.
Thus, if the goal of the Italian government is to stifle the black market in antiquities dealings, the trial against True is a circuitous route to these more proximate offenders.
The failure of Italian local enforcement and customs officials should not bring the force of the state against a foreign professional. Other methods of regulation include restrictions on portable metal detectors, more cunning techniques of law enforcement, and shifting the burden of illegality from the supplying smugglers to the buying collectors. True's trial sends a threatening message to antiquity buyers to provide greater due diligence.
A Martyr for Another Country's Cause, or the Second 'Purpose' of Persuading the Buyers to Repatriate Mercilessly
True's Trial as a Powerful Symbol for Repatriation
True's character shows a commitment to cultural patrimony laws, including, in the 1990s, testimony in Congress supporting US enforcement of Italian export laws. Her integrity has general approval in the industry.
The publicity surrounding her indictment has been overwhelming across the United States and worldwide.
True's Trial as an Offensive against Cultural Invasions, or the Language of War
With True in the midst of criminal proceedings, the Italian government has been leading an offensive effort to reclaim works exported after the cultural patrimony law passed in 1939 (interestingly, at the dawn of World War II).
New deals reached with the Met, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Princeton Art Museum, and the Getty as well as the first private collector
Italian government's propaganda over True's case sends the message that her guilt is so obvious that other museums believe it necessary to repatriate items.
The Italian government literally declares "vittoria morale" in December with the opening of an exhibition featuring the repatriated items and reaffirms True's guilt in the same breath, without having even started the conviction proceedings.
When Italian government feels True's trial is not putting enough coercive pressure on museums, it resorts to threatening a "cultural embargo" on American museums.
The Italian government's innocence: How dare the Getty show up in Italy with lawyers! Instead of handling this dispute among cultural ministers, the Italian government feels threatened by Robert Olson, the big-shot founder of Munger, Toller, & Olson, who, they believe, attempted to politicize the issue by asking the American ambassador to attend negotiations. They must have forgotten that, at every moment of this dispute, lies in the background an American citizen on trial!
- Paper Title (TBD)
- The Problem of Looters, or The First 'Purpose' of Shifting the Burden from Italian Criminals to Foreign Museum Professionals
- Birth of a Black Market in Morgantina, Sicily
- The Other Side of the Trial, or the Consistent Failure in Convicting the Proximate Offenders
- The Suspicious Role of Judge Magistrate Silvio Raffiotta: owner of house in Morgantina, Sicily; writer of archaeological guidebook for the area. In 1980s, he turned the spotlight, with the help ofprosecutor Ferri, West to American buyers because of the difficulty in prosecuting the looters. Little known to most of the world, Raffiotta was charged with being associated with a smuggler ring at the turn of the century. What could be a cause for his new affectation for prosecuting American museums given his close connection to Morgantina, smuggler rings, and perhaps even the Mafia?
- The true culprits in this trial are more directly these tomb raiders of cultural patrimony than what may be a 'bona fide' purchaser. The purchaser falls last in a drawn out chain of commercial exchanges. The night looter -> the smuggler -> Italian customers -> the dealer -> U.S. customs -> the purchaser.
- Thus, if the goal of the Italian government is to stifle the black market in antiquities dealings, the trial against True is a circuitous route to these more proximate offenders.
- The failure of Italian local enforcement and customs officials should not bring the force of the state against a foreign professional. Other methods of regulation include restrictions on portable metal detectors, more cunning techniques of law enforcement, and shifting the burden of illegality from the supplying smugglers to the buying collectors. True's trial sends a threatening message to antiquity buyers to provide greater due diligence.
- A Martyr for Another Country's Cause, or the Second 'Purpose' of Persuading the Buyers to Repatriate Mercilessly
- True's Trial as a Powerful Symbol for Repatriation
- True's Trial as an Offensive against Cultural Invasions, or the Language of War
- With True in the midst of criminal proceedings, the Italian government has been leading an offensive effort to reclaim works exported after the cultural patrimony law passed in 1939 (interestingly, at the dawn of World War II).
- New deals reached with the Met, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Princeton Art Museum, and the Getty as well as the first private collector
- Italian government's propaganda over True's case sends the message that her guilt is so obvious that other museums believe it necessary to repatriate items.
- The Italian government literally declares "vittoria morale" in December with the opening of an exhibition featuring the repatriated items and reaffirms True's guilt in the same breath, without having even started the conviction proceedings.
- When Italian government feels True's trial is not putting enough coercive pressure on museums, it resorts to threatening a "cultural embargo" on American museums.
- The Italian government's innocence: How dare the Getty show up in Italy with lawyers! Instead of handling this dispute among cultural ministers, the Italian government feels threatened by Robert Olson, the big-shot founder of Munger, Toller, & Olson, who, they believe, attempted to politicize the issue by asking the American ambassador to attend negotiations. They must have forgotten that, at every moment of this dispute, lies in the background an American citizen on trial!
- Paper Title (TBD)
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
Paper Title (TBD)
-- By JesseCreed - 09 Feb 2008
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