The True Shoe Dropping

As I reported here over a week ago, Marion True's woes are about to subside, because of the agreement between Italy and the Getty for the museum to return 40 objects that Italy says were looted. Bloomberg News reports today that both Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and state prosecutor Maurizio Fiorilli say that the civil charges against True will be dropped. Fiorilli told me this would happen, in an interview before the agreement was announced (see "The End of True's Trials?") . The article says that True still faces criminal charges, but Fiorilli told me at the time that those will likely be negotiated in a plea bargain to a jail sentence of two to three years. So will end the True saga, unless Greece moves forward with its own criminal proceedings, which remains unclear. Overall, I can only imagine that this will serve as a painful deterrent to any other museum considering dragging its heels on an agreement with Italy over allegedly looted objects.