ABOVE: one of the famous Elgin Marbles, a collection of ancient Greek statues in the collection of the British Museum. The Christian Science Monitor says the Getty’s recent provenance difficulties is putting pressure on other museums to root out possibly-looted articles in their collections.

We’re sorry to keep harping on the big scandale at the Getty Centre, in which the museum has been accused of not being entirely scrupulous in checking the background of some of its antiquities. But it’s just too big an issue, and growing every day. Over the weekend the Christian Science Monitor published a story about how the Getty’s troubles are drawing scrutiny to the collections of other major museums, and may be swinging the pendulum of public opinion toward stricter guidelines for acquisition and the return of some prized possessions.

Thomas Hoving, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is quoted as saying that this may be a defining moment for museums, and that as public awareness of provenance issues grows, attorneys general are going to be less and less willing to whistle dixie while publicly-funded institutions hold looted material in their collections. The Getty, the article notes, actually has one of the strictest provenance policies of any American museum, so others are going to see this more and more on their radar.

LINK: Christian Science Monitor > Ancient art, modern crime