Monthly Archive for May, 2011

Photo AP/via NPR

From Italofile

On Tuesday, the Museo Archeologico di Morgantina, a small archeological museum in Aidone (Enna), Sicily, held an inauguration for the repatriation of an ancient sculpture of Aphrodite. The stone deity, known in Italian as the Dea Morgantina, had been a prized possession of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles until L.A. Times journalists Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino uncovered that the Getty had illicitly acquired the Aphrodite and several dozen other ancient works of art that had been stolen from Italy and sold on the arts black market. This fascinating tale of the underbelly of the antiquities trade and the Getty’s role in the acquisition of looted art is the subject of Felch and Frammolino’s new book, “Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum.”

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From the Los Angeles Times

For Southern Californians who like to drop in on major museums, the sub-$10 adult general admission ticket is about to go the way of the 10-cent cigar and the sub-$4 gallon of gasoline.

The last holdouts were the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and its subsidiary, the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors approved price hikes that, starting May 11, will lift admission prices to $12 from $9 at the main museum in Exposition Park, and to $11 from $7 at the Page. The Hammer Museum in Westwood and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena raised admission to $10 earlier this year.

Less-expensive options remain at some smaller and more specialized museums, not to mention the free admission policies at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the California Science Center and a few others.  For the full story, click here.

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