Nikolas Zirganos

In 2005, California’s Getty Museum hit the news: their former curator for antiquities, Marion True, has been accused of being involved in an extensive trade in archaeological treasures and went on trial in Rome charged with criminal conspiracy. The True case is not an exception, but rather an example for a major ethical crisis that has hit many big museums around the world, which mirrors the deeper crisis of the antiquity trade today.

In 2005, California’s Getty Museum hit the news: their former curator for antiquities, Marion True, has been accused of being involved in an extensive trade in archaeological treasures and went on trial in Rome charged with criminal conspiracy. The True case is not an exception, but rather an example for a major ethical crisis that has hit many big museums around the world, which mirrors the deeper crisis of the antiquity trade today.