17 January 2006

AMERICAN ART DEALER ACUSSED

15/1/2006.-

American art dealer Robert Hecht, 86, center, is approached by reporters as he leaves a Rome court for a break Friday Jan. 13, 2006, during a trial which sees him accused with Marion True, former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum, of receiving and conspiring to deal in illegally acquired antiquities. Italian prosecutors Friday showed a court thank-you notes and other correspondence that they contended proved that former curator True knew artifacts were being illegally acquired. The letters are evidence that True made numerous deals with an Italian art dealer convicted of conspiring to deal in illegally acquired antiquities, said Prosecutor Paolo Ferri. True and Hecht have denied wrongdoing