Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli
Just when Karol Wight gets the “acting” removed from her title as antiquities curator at the Getty (as reported in today’s NY Times), The Great Repatriator girds his loins to stride again through our land.
This just in from ANSA, the Italian news agency:
[Italian Culture Minister Francesco] Rutelli is off to the United States this week and said he expects “to bring something back.”
The report also reveals that “Italy on Monday handed back to Pakistan a precious haul of stolen antiquities….Pressed by reporters, Rutelli confirmed that this was “a message” for the Getty.”
Another ANSA article (this one, in Italian) reports that Rutelli, on Thursday, will attend an archeological repatriation ceremony at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. Tiziana Benini, press officer for the Italian Ministry of Culture, would tell CultureGrrl no more, other than to say (in an e-mail), “We have to wait only two days to know!!!”
Can you stand the suspense?