Treasures from Russia under the California Sun

Now that the Getty Museum has wisely chosen to undertake the painful but inevitable step of placating the Italian authorities by sending back to Italy forty antiquities from the museum's collection, it's a good time to reflect on this controversy and try to make sense of it all.  I couldn't agree more with the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times (August 6, 2007) stating that "Legally, the return of the artworks is the right thing to do...International treaties left Getty executives with little choice.  Whether it's fair is another matter."