ROME, ITALY.-This past Friday Italy received three disputed art works from the J. Paul Getty Museum, just three days before the continuation of the trial one of Getty’s former curators charged for conspiring with dealers trafficking in looted antiquities. Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione thanked the Getty Museum for the return of these three art works but he needed the other 39 works acquired by curator Marion True to return to be satisfied.

Rocco Buttiglione stated at a press conferece: "We are firm on this point: what belongs to the Italian people must be returned to the Italian people. The Americans must above all be aware that the theft of cultural heritage is often connected with criminal organisations and that the illegal traffic of art works is one source of financing for international terrorism."

The Getty returned a large antique vase signed by Asteas, a painter from the ancient southern Italian city of Paestum, a bronze Etruscan candelabrum and an ancient Greek funerary stone.