In recent years, several of America’s leading art museums have voluntarily given up their finest pieces of Classical art, more than 100 antiquities to the governments of Italy and
Greece. The monetary value is estimated at over half a billion dollars. Yet, for the most part, the museums gave up these prized objects under no legal obligation and without
compensation. Why would they be moved to such unheard-of generosity? The answer lies at the Getty Museum, one of the world’s richest and most troubled, due to scandalous revelations that they
bought looted antiquities for decades. Drawing on a trove of confidential museum records and frank interviews, Felch and Frammolino give us a
fly-on-the-wall account of the inner workings of a world-class museum, and tell the story of the Getty's dealings in the illegal antiquities trade. The outlandish characters
and bad behavior could be from an Agatha Christie story - the wealthy recluse founder; the cagey Italian art investigator; the playboy curator; the narcissist CEO—but
their chilling effects on the rest of the art world have been all too real, as the authors show in novelistic detail.
Fast-paced and compelling,Chasing Aphrodite exposes the lay of dirt beneath thepolished façade of the museum business.
