Prosecutor outlines evidence in art smuggling case

An art smuggling trial that could have significant repercussions for museums across the United States got underway yesterday, with Italian prosecutors restating the charges against a well-traveled art dealer and a former curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Both the curator, Marion True, and the dealer, Robert E. Hecht Jr., have links to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. True worked there as a curatorial assistant from 1972 to 1975, and Hecht has sold or given 116 pieces, not including coins, to the museum over the years.

The MFA is not part of the trial, but Italian prosecutors have entered a list of more than 30 objects in the museum's collection as evidence in the case, which is part of Italy's decades-long attempt to get American museums to return stolen art.

''Carelessness or criminal deeds that have been committed in the past will not be repeated in the future," prosecutor Paolo Ferri said yesterday.

Ferri has accused True and Hecht of handling and receiving stolen objects as part of a smuggling ring that directed works to the Getty along with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MFA, and several other museums. Both True and Hecht have pleaded not guilty. The case is being watched closely by some archeologists, who argue that American museums have acquired objects stolen from dig sites in Italy, scrubbed clean in Switzerland, and sold by art dealers with little evidence of their provenance or histories.

Next week in Rome, Philippe de Montebello, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will meet with Italian officials to discuss questions about pieces in the Met collection.

MFA officials, so far, have had little to say about the case, which centers around charges of stolen objects that ended up at the Getty. The Los Angeles museum has already returned three objects. Italian officials want more.

Along with evidence seized for the trial, Italian prosecutors gathered photographs of works they believe were stolen and later sold to many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MFA.

The MFA, in statements made through last week, said that it does not know of any stolen work in its collection, and that it has contacted Italian authorities to discuss the matter. MFA officials would not say whom they had contacted. Yesterday an MFA spokeswoman said the museum would no longer comment on the trial, or on the investigation.

Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's minister of culture, said last week he was not aware of the MFA's attempts to contact him or other cultural leaders. He said he would be willing to discuss making long-term loans to the museum so it could continue to show disputed works. ''But we want our right of property to be recognized," Buttiglione said. ''What belongs to the Italian people must be recognized as a property of the Italian people."

Hecht has for years been the target of investigators. But the prosecution of True has sent a stronger message to the museum world, archeologists say. True was largely seen as a reformer at the Getty, where she pushed hard for new standards in a museum market driven by works that had little or no record of ownership.

Elizabeth Fentress, an archeologist who has followed the case closely as a research fellow at the British School of Rome, said former MFA officials had reason to be worried. ''If I were Cornelius Vermeule, I'd be very concerned," she said, referring to Cornelius C. Vermeule III, a now retired MFA curator, who purchased many works from Hecht for the museum.

Ferri, the Italian prosecutor, would not discuss Vermeule yesterday. Last week, though, he confirmed that a diary belonging to Hecht, and reportedly detailing his art dealings, had been seized and entered into the evidence. When asked whether it mentioned the MFA, Ferri told the Globe: ''Vermeule and Hecht were close friends."

Vermeule could not be reached for comment yesterday. He is in Australia and not reachable by telephone, according to a woman staying at his Cambridge home.

In court yesterday, True sat silently as Ferri listed the evidence in the case, which included Polaroids prosecutors say were taken during the 1970s and later seized in a police raid from the warehouse of convicted art smuggler Giacomo Mediciand Hecht's Paris apartment. These photographs, prosecutors said, show objects still covered in dirt -- strong proof that they had been pulled out of the ground illegally before being sold to museums.

Court officials said True's appearance was not required and came as a surprise. Her attorneys asked the three-judge panel to ban TV cameras from the trial. The judges agreed.

One of True's attorneys occasionally whispered in her ear. True herself did not speak to the court, nor to the press. Wearing black sunglasses, she was shuffled out of the courtroom into a taxi after the three-hour hearing.

Geoff Edgers reported from Boston. Sofia Celeste reported from Rome. Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.