European court backs Italy in Greek statue dispute with Getty Museum

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ruled in favour of Italy’s long-standing demand that the Getty Villa Museum in the United States return an ancient Greek statue which Rome claims was smuggled out of the country decades ago.

The bronze, life-size statue known as the “Victorious Youth” is of a naked young man crowning himself with a wreath. It was made by Greek sculptor Lysippos between 300 and 100 BC and discovered in 1964 by a fisherman in the Adriatic Sea, off the central Italian town of Pedaso.