Getty agrees to send 40 art works back to Italy

ROME, Aug 2 (Reuters) The Getty Museum has reached a compromise with Italy after a bitter dispute over antiquities in its collection that Rome says were looted, the Italian Culture Ministry said in a statement.

The museum will return 40 artefacts to Italy, fewer than the 46 Italy initially demanded but more than the 26 it offered last year when the government threatened to cut ties with the museum.

''Both sides say they are satisfied that, after long and complex negotiations, an agreement has been reached and now we will proceed towards a relationship of renewed cooperation,'' the ministry said yesterday.

The deal will allow Getty, the wealthiest US art institution with an endowment of over 5 billion dollar, to keep one of the key items on the list, a limestone and marble statue of Aphrodite, until 2010.

The two sides continue to disagree on one of the other most important items, the bronze Statue of a Victorious Youth, sometimes known as ''the Getty Bronze''.

Talks on the fate of the 2,500-year-old statue will resume after an Italian court case on the status of the object which was found in international waters more than 40 years ago.

Earlier this year, Getty agreed to return four artefacts to Greece which Athens said had been smuggled and sold illegally.

The museum has come under pressure over allegations of acquiring ancient art pieces illegally when a former Getty curator was charged with art theft and a Trust chairman resigned in 2006 following controversies over art looting.

REUTERS RS PM0900