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Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum First Edition, Kindle Edition
A “thrilling, well-researched” account of years of scandal at the prestigious Getty Museum (Ulrich Boser, author of The Gardner Heist).
In recent years, several of America’s leading art museums have voluntarily given up their finest pieces of classical art to the governments of Italy and Greece. Why would they be moved to such unheard-of generosity? The answer lies at the Getty, one of the world’s richest and most troubled museums, and scandalous revelations that it had been buying looted antiquities for decades. Drawing on a trove of confidential museum records and candid interviews, these two journalists give us a fly-on-the-wall account of the inner workings of a world-class museum, and tell a story of outlandish characters and bad behavior that could come straight from the pages of a thriller.
“In an authoritative account, two reporters who led a Los Angeles Times investigation reveal the details of the Getty Museum’s illicit purchases, from smugglers and fences, of looted Greek and Roman antiquities. . . . The authors offer an excellent recap of the museum’s misdeeds, brimming with tasty details of the scandal that motivated several of America’s leading art museums to voluntarily return to Italy and Greece some 100 classical antiquities worth more than half a billion dollars.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An astonishing and penetrating look into a veiled world where beauty and art are in constant competition with greed and hypocrisy. This engaging book will cast a fresh light on many of those gleaming objects you see in art museums.” —Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting
- ISBN-13978-0151015016
- EditionFirst
- PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt
- Publication dateMay 24, 2011
- LanguageEnglish
- File size3934 KB
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review
"A thrilling, well-researched book that offers readers a glimpse into the back-room dealings of a world-class museum--and the illegal trade of looted antiquities. Chasing Aphrodite should not be missed. " –Ulrich Boser, author of THE GARDNER HEIST: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft
"Chasing Aphrodite is an epic story that, from the first page, grabs you by the lapels and won’t let go. Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino have penetrated the inner sanctum of one of the world’s most powerful museums, exposing how its caretakers – blinded by greed, arrogance and self-deception – eagerly tapped international networks of criminals in pursuit of the next great masterpiece. It is a breathtaking tale that I guarantee will keep you reading late into the night. - Kurt Eichenwald, author of CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS: A True Story
From the Inside Flap
A brilliantly told, richly detailed, and vitally important account of how one of America s top cultural institutions spent millions buying treasures stolen from ancient graves and then spent millions more trying to deny it. In the hands of Felch and Frammolino, the story gathers a riveting momentum as the Getty moves from one ethical smashup to another. The authors present an astonishing array of evidence, yet they are scrupulously balanced and keenly sensitive to the nuances of the cultural property debate. Even if you think you know the story of the Getty, read this book. You won t know whether to laugh or to cry, but you will be enthralled. Roger Atwood, author of Stealing History
A wealthy recluse founder; a cagey Italian art thief; a playboy curator; a narcissist CEO the outlandish characters and bad behavior could come straight from the pages of a thriller. But the scandal of looted antiquities at the wealthy Getty Museum is all too real, as are its chilling effects on the rest of the art world.
Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino were the first to report on the revelations that the Getty had bought looted antiquities for decades. Now, drawing on a trove of confidential records and frank interviews, they give us a fly-on-the-wall account of the Getty s dealings in the illegal antiquities trade, revealing the inner workings of one world-class museum and tracing the reverberations of the scandal on others many of which have given up their finest pieces of classical art as a result of the upheaval, returning antiquities worth over half a billion dollars to the governments of Italy and Greece.
Fast-paced and compelling, Chasing Aphrodite exposes the layer of dirt beneath the polished façade of the museum business.
From the Back Cover
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CHASING APHRODITE
Chasing Aphrodite is an epic story that, from the first page, grabs you by the lapels and won t let go. Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino have penetrated the inner sanctum of one of the world s most powerful museums, exposing how its caretakers blinded by greed, arrogance and self-deception eagerly tapped international networks of criminals in pursuit of the next great masterpiece. It is a breathtaking tale that I guarantee will keep you reading late into the night. Kurt Eichenwald, author of CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS: A TRUE STORY
America s great art museums are the last sacred cows of our culture. It takes a special sort of intrepid investigator backed by a courageous organization to uncover the secrets and lies of these quasi-public institutions and the private agendas of their wealthy and influential patrons. Chasing Aphrodite, by the Los Angeles Times reporters Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, is the result of one such rare convergence. A scary, true tale of the blinding allure of great art and the power of the wealth that covets it, it is also an inspiring example of the only greater power: the truth. Michael Gross, author of Rogues Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum
A thrilling, well-researched book that offers readers a glimpse into the back-room dealings of a world-class museum and the illegal trade of looted antiquities. Chasing Aphrodite should not be missed. Ulrich Boser, author of The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World s Largest Unsolved Art Theft
An astonishing and penetrating look into a veiled world where beauty and art are in constant competition with greed and hypocrisy. This engaging book will cast a fresh light on many of those gleaming objects you see in art museums. Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting
About the Author
JASON FELCH is an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Times. In 2006 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for exposing the role of the J. Paul Getty Museum and other American museums in the black market for looted antiquities. His work has also been honored by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Education Writers Association, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Society for Environmental Journalism. He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife and son.
RALPH FRAMMOLINO reported for nearly 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, where he and former colleague Jason Felch were finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for their articles about the J. Paul Getty Museum and looted antiquities. His work has also appeared in the New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review. Frammolino is now a media consultant for various aid projects in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, where he trains working journalists on investigative reporting techniques and right to information laws.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
The Lost Bronze
In the pre-dawn light of a summer morning in 1964, the 60-
foot fishing trawler Ferrucio Ferri shoved off from the Italian seaport
of Fano and motored south, making a steady eight knots along
Italy’s east coast. When the Ferri reached the peninsula of Ancona,
Romeo Pirani, the boat’s captain, set a course east-southeast, half way
between the dry scirocco wind that blew up from Africa and the cooler
levanti that swept across the Adriatic from Yugoslavia.
The six-man crew dozed. The sea was glassy, but Pirani knew how
temperamental the Adriatic could be this time of year. Just a few
weeks earlier, a sudden storm had blown across the sea, sinking three
boats and killing four fishermen. Weather was not his only worry.
The Second World War had left its mark on the sea and made his job
all the more dangerous. Nets hauled up mines and bombs left behind
decades ago by retreating Nazi forces or their American pursuers.
The arms of many men in Fano bore scars from the acid that oozed
out of the rusting ordnance.
As the sun rose, blinding their eyes, Pirani and his crew sipped
moretta, a hot mixture of rum, brandy, espresso and anise, topped
with a lemon rind and lots of sugar. The strong brew gave the men
not just warmth, but courage. By nightfall, the Ferri had reached its
destination, a spot in international waters roughly midway between
Italy and Yugoslavia. The captain knew of a rocky outcropping that
rose from the seabed where schools of merluza, St. Peter’s Fish and
octopus gathered for safety in the summer heat. Other boats ventured
farther east, into the deep waters off the Yugoslav coast, where they
risked arrest for poaching, But Pirani preferred this hidden shoal.
While fishing there meant occasionally snagging the nets on sharp
rocks, the boat often returned to port full.
The crew cast its nets into the dark waters. They fished all night,
sleeping in shifts.
Just after dawn, the nets tugged, catching a snag. Pirani gunned
the engine and, with a jolt, the nets came free. As some peered over
the side, the crew hauled in its catch: A barnacle-encrusted object that
resembled a man.
“Cest un morto!” cried one of the fishermen. A dead man!
As the sea gave up its secret, it quickly became apparent that the
thing was too rigid and heavy to be a man. The crew dragged it to the
bow of the boat. The life-sized figure weighed about 300 pounds and
had black holes for eyes and was frozen in a curious pose. Its right
hand was raised to its head. Given the thickness of its encrustations,
it looked as if it had been resting on the ocean floor for centuries.
The men went about the immediate work of mending the torn
nets. It was only later, when they stopped for a breakfast of roasted
fish, that one of them grabbed a gaffe and pried off a patch of barnacles.
He let out a yelp.
“Cest de oro!” he cried, pointing at the flash of brilliant yellow. It’s
gold!
Pirani pushed through the huddle and looked at the exposed metal.
Not gold, he declared, bronze. None had ever seen anything like it. It
might be worth something. The Ferri’s men made a hasty decision.
Rather than turn it over to local authorities, they would sell the figure
and divvy the profits.
As the Ferri motored back to Fano that afternoon, word came over
the radio that the town was afire with news of the discovery. The
spark had come earlier, when the Captain had mentioned it while
chatting ship-to-shore with his wife. Now crowds had gathered in the
port for the Ferri’s return. Pirani cut the engine and waited until
nightfall. By the time the Ferri pulled into port, it was nearly 3 a.m.
and the docks were deserted.
The crew brought the statue ashore on a handcart, hidden under a
pile of nets, and took it to the house of Pirani’s cousin, who owned the
boat. After a few days, the statue began to smell of rotting fish. The
cousin moved it to a covered garden patio and quietly invited several
local antique sellers to have a look. They offered up to one million
lire, but the crew wanted more.
With the statue’s stench growing stronger by the day, the cousin
fretted that someone would alert police. He asked a friend with a Fiat
600 Mutipla to pick up the bronze statue and take it to a farm outside
town, where they buried it in a cabbage field while they looked for a
serious buyer.
A month later, they found Giacomo Barbetti, an antiquarian whose
wealthy family owned a cement factory in Gubbio, 50 miles inland
from Fano. Barbetti said he was prepared to pay several million lire
for the statue but naturally needed to see it first. When the figure
emerged from the cabbage patch, Barbetti brushed aside the dirt,
touched its straight nose and surmised it to be the work of Lysippus,
one of the master sculptors of ancient Greece.
Lysippos was the personal sculptor of Alexander the Great, and his
fame as a sculptor spread throughout the ancient world on the heels of
his patron’s conquests. Lysippos rewrote the canon for Greek sculpture
with figures that were more slender and symmetrical than those
of his predecessors Polycleitus and the great Phidias, sculptor of the
Acropolis friezes. Aside from busts of Alexander, Lysippos was famous
for depicting athletes, and many of his bronzes lined the pathways
of Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic games. Lysippos is said to
have created over 1,500 sculptures in his lifetime, but none was believed
to have survived antiquity.
Except, perhaps, this one. The bronze athlete in the cabbage patch
may well have been one of those lining the pathways to Olympia, only
to become war booty for Rome, whose glory slowly eclipsed that of
Athens. As they swept through the Greek mainland and islands,
Roman soldiers filled thousands of ships with plunder. It was likely in
one such raid that the bronze athlete was torn from its pedestal some
300 years after its creation and loaded on to a waiting transport ship
for Rome. The Adriatic was as fickle then as it is today, whipping up
deadly storms without warning. Around the time of Christ, the ship
bearing the bronze athlete apparently sank to the sea floor, where it
lay for two thousand years.
As Barbetti touched the foul-smelling figure’s nose he clearly saw
something he liked. He offered 3.5 million lire — about $4,000,
enough to buy several houses in Fano at the time. The money was
split among the crew. Captain Pirani’s share was about $1,600, double
his monthly wages.
The bronze, meanwhile, was on the move.
Product details
- ASIN : B004X7TLOC
- Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First edition (May 24, 2011)
- Publication date : May 24, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 3934 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 397 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #205,662 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2 in Museum Administration & Museology
- #3 in Antique & Collectible Art
- #11 in Business of Art
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Ralph Frammolino reported for nearly 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, where he and former colleague Jason Felch were finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for their articles about the J. Paul Getty Museum and looted antiquities. Prior to that, Mr. Frammolino's investigative stories led to the federal conviction of two advertising executives for submitting inflated bills to the City of Los Angeles; exposed a back-door admissions system at UCLA that favored children of the rich, famous and powerful over better qualified candidates; and prompted a change in California's organ donation law by revealing how the Los Angeles County coroner's office sold corneas removed during autopsies without the consent of surviving relatives. His reporting assignments have taken him to Beijing, Rome, Athens, London and the Caribbean island of Montserrat; and he was part of the Times effort that snagged the Pulitzer Prize for Spot Reporting on the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. His work has also appeared in the New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review. After leaving The LA Times in 2008, Mr. Frammolino worked as a journalism teacher in India and is now a media consultant for various aid projects in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, where he trains working journalists on investigative reporting techniques and right to information laws. "Chasing Aphrodite" is his first book.
Jason Felch is an award winning investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Times. In 2006 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for exposing the role of the J. Paul Getty Museum and other American museums in the black market for looted antiquities. His work has also been honored by the National Journalism Awards, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Association of Science Writers and others. Prior to joining the LA Times in 2004, Jason was a fellow at the Center for Investigative Reporting and a freelance writer on topics such as money laundering, arms trafficking and drilling for natural gas in the Peruvian rainforest. Jason received a bachelor's in philosophy from Boston College and a masters in journalism from UC Berkeley. Before entering journalism, he was a teacher and founded an afterschool program in San Francisco. He currently lives in Pasadena, California with his wife and son. Chasing Aphrodite is his first book.
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I knew what I was getting into when I picked this book as I have followed the development of the Getty Museum through the years while living in Los Angeles. I visited the Getty Villa numerous times in the 90s, semi curious about their artifacts but intrigued by their paintings and then was present for opening weekend in 1997 high up in the hills overlooking the ocean. I recall being on the property the day Huell Howser came to film the gardens and watched him for a few moments from afar.
No one would've ever guessed what was going on behind closed doors, except a few handful of people who circulated in that world exclusively. The level of secrecy that had to have been asked for, instilled and maintained throughout many years, even by lesser staff, who obviously knew quite a bit, is likely a story all by itself. While there have been numerous articles written about the Getty and their dealings, nothing reaches the magnitude of what is laid out bare in this book. If this was a book about somewhere more mainstream like Disneyland, the White House or some other supposedly sacred location, we would be hearing about this repeatedly, for weeks on the nightly news. The fact that it hasn't caused more outrage is telling. I cannot imagine this book went over well inside the Getty. I'm betting some folks may have even 'retired' just before this was published, just because.
Coming away from Chasing Aphrodite, I had more questions than answers. I think anyone reading this and paying attention to the details would.
Why did Marion True shift her position about buying looted antiquities almost overnight, even later vacillating several times about the idea of provenance whenever something shiny and new popped up on the Antiquities market, but was still running a dense PR campaign to push museums to become more ethical? I got the impression that this was actually a personal vendetta she was waging against someone outside of the Getty, possibly at another museum, but nothing concrete was stated.
Also, one could argue, based upon the correspondences and other documents that were presented that Marion True may have never been held to later account had she just maintained the status quo and not engaged in trying to reform the Getty and by defacto, other museums as well. Coming away, it was clear that she wasn't honest about her reform and she merely used it to try to generate publicity for the Getty, trying to legitimize it, but nothing about what she did really rung true, no pun intended.
I speculated about half way through that she was actually interested, honestly interested, in getting the Italian Government to loan priceless antiquities and allow them to travel to the Getty where she might try to wage a campaign to buy the priceless art for huge sums. That would be a huge achievement for anyone and create a go-to location for something magnificent and widely mainstream, like the Mona Lisa located at the Louvre. The book mentions this in a few places but doesn't really cook the meat off the bone for consumption at any time. You just see it float by in the text like a coffee cart on the veranda.
I also find it difficult to believe that she held any angst over the discoveries of Jiri Frel and his 'catalogue building' that he engaged in. Maybe she was trying to create some kind of restitution on her own terms in the weird and strange world of antiquities collecting that operated on endless Getty Trust dollars? Maybe she was trying to right some wrongs with the mess that she had found herself inextricably entwined in against her will because of the early days with Frel? Maybe it was her lack of finances and the knowledge that she was cooked if she ever stopped playing along? These things are all hard to figure out.
I think it's fair to say two things about Marion True. One, she's definitely not a villain. She's not drawn as one in these pages, but she's not written as someone you should admire. The truth is you probably should. The lady was a vanguard and a true architect of her own world and profession. She was definitely making back alley deals with shady European guys with the Getty checkbook and had very little pushback – and this image is what seems to be the one that some people have a problem with. The second thing that's obvious, is that if she were a man … yep … they would've likely made her the director of the entire Getty property for everything she did and the ability and connections she had control of. Let's just be real here.
The most important fact however, regarding Marion True -- and it's impossible to discount and look away from -- was her dealings at the Getty over a career cultivating the Fleischman Collection. The book paints a decades long relationship, building, manipulating, quid-pro-quo, receipt based relationship between both True and Barbara and Larry Fleischman. The idea that she found certain items on the market, had them bought by the Fleischmans and then donated later to the Getty is damning. It's difficult for sure, but not impossible, to answer the questions directly pertaining to that collection and how that was ultimately manipulated. The Investigation and findings of Ferri and the Italians are sadly, and very likely, the most honest. Why? Because that's what the physical evidence bears out. Most people in the world, once having looked at all the facts would have a hard time walking away and NOT seeing Marion True as a Criminal Genius who concocted, crafted and pulled off a multi-million dollar scheme to load up the Getty with illegal artifacts on Getty endowment dollars. She's the Thomas Crown for the modern age. I don't know how else to say it.
What gets me is the sheer amount of data these authors have been able to present. The personal data being the most eye-opening. Many times in the text, statements are made that are highly personal, highly self-deprecating with certain individuals and makes the reader wonder how they came about this data without speaking directly to these people and why they would admit such things about themselves. I would guess none of the people mentioned have challenged any of this, but it's like a weird irony from the book where one has to provide proof of absolute provenance and origin to make a claim in order to get anything back.
I have read elsewhere that the authors were provided these documents through a massive internal leak, but this unfortunately being a messy thing by itself, doesn't absolve anyone. Lifting a rock and putting light on something doesn't also provide asylum if there was wrong doing – just because the rock was lifted. I also think the authors did a good job in explaining that the Getty Directors and top-tier staff were all warned early on but arrogantly pushed forward regardless, something that came back to bite them later.
Most criminals, whether they be blue collar or white collar all know not to run your mouth endlessly about what your doing, what you did and who you did it with. This book seems to exist in a world where that just isn't the case, and while there were stacks upon stacks of Polaroids and police reports and even would-be Biographies unearthed in the investigations and research it is really hard to believe that these intrepid authors had complete access to everything in print that's alluded to. I'm not saying that I don't believe what's being presented, I do. Fully. This is boldly candid. I just have the feeling that there is much more here with the relationships people had in getting this information than meets the eye.
For example, while it is true what is said about all the tombs that were raided from 1950 – 1990 by the tombaroli (grave robbers) and that vases, pottery, jewelry statues and other physical trinkets were of great interest, there wasn't a single mention about a single canvas in this book – except for the portrait of J. Paul Getty hanging in a boardroom that took place during True's first contact with the Italians. Shocking to think about that, isn't it? Art theft, especially since the trafficking of canvases is a multi-million-to-billion dollar business, especially with the Getty and in Los Angeles, but not a single mention of it? I found that odd.
I will probably update this review in time as this information is quite a world-changer. Yes, I wrote a long review. Too bad. If you can read almost 400 pages, this review isn't going to hurt you. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Getty, Art, Museums, etc., on any level. This is a must read and should be shared in high schools, especially those interested in the arts.
This book traces the story from the so-called Getty Bronze, which a collector wanted Getty himself to purchase to items that came to the museum from Maurice Tempelsman to items that were acquired through a tax donation scheme by Jiří Frel to the Greek/Sicilian sculpture found in Sicily that formed the book's namesake and beyond. This isn't just the story of the Getty, but rather the story of the issues surrounding American museums and their curators in the years after the 1970 UNESCO declaration. Philippe de Montebello, Thomas Hoving and other art world leaders faced the same dilemmas that Munitz and the others at the Getty did.
Very readable, fascinating history. Only quibble is it sometimes jumped back and forth in time so it wasn't a sequential narrative.
Whatever you have seen in politics or the boardrooms of Fortune 500 firms you will see at the Getty, but with far more glamor than in most of such stories of the fall from power. I guess that's because we are talking about beauty and its quest.
There are overtones in the book of some universal principles of human behavior, discovered by the very people whose philosophy guides us to this day, while its art excites our admiration. When someone gives a warning, Cassandra-like, it pays to listen. When the tomb- and ruin-raiders trample through a part of once-Greek Sicily, in an area strewn with temples to the cult of the mother and daughter Demeter and Persephone, and they drag out a statue that might be Aphrodite or perhaps Demeter in search of her daughter, with her arm outstretched with what might have been a lantern, one has only to think of the myth to realize it involves an abduction. Persephone is taken by the god of the Underworld, the god of wealth, Pluto, and must dwell in Hades until negotiations allow her to come aboveground for part of the year.
The absence of the stolen girl in the hands of the symbol of greed is a fitting metaphor for the fate of so many of these statues taken in nasty, brutish grabs. That an arrangement is later worked out for sharing such a beauty between one venue and another, is probably the eventual outcome of these stories of beautiful objects. With the passage of time, they are no longer simply the property of one nation, but something to be shared by the far-flung descendants, actual and spiritual, of the artisans of antiquity. While individual careers may have ended tragically at the beginning of this process, eventually some good can come of it. But the careful work of archaeology is eclipsed in this age by the lust for sensational museum exhibits which shows no sign of abating. Beauty and truth (which Keats saw on a Roman vase taken by the British) are unfortunately not so compatible as the poet believed. In LA beauty has trumped truth for a longer time than the Getty has existed - just look at any historical movie. So the slow careful work of the archaeologist can be rewarded only as tech support in today's museum world. Nevertheless, as the book demonstrates, the legitimacy of exhibits depends on the understanding of the context from which the art work comes, and if scholars boycott the Getty (as they have done), we'll all be the poorer for it.
I am currently reading about the same events in an earlier, less concise book, the Medici Conspiracy. It was written around the time the events of this book were being covered in a series of investigative articles in the LA Times, by the authors of Chasing Aphrodite, who were nominated for the Pulitzer for their work. The MC, by a European-based team (Peter Watson, Cecilia Todeschini, and Nikolas Zirganos) is the more working class side of the story, in that it delves into the world of tomb-robbers and Italian art crime syndicates, as well as the police who track them. As such, the two books are complementary and I recommend both.
Top reviews from other countries
Tuttavia, grazie alla caparbietà di un team di poliziotti e archeologi italiani, l'Italia è riuscita a riavere indietro un centinaio di oggetti, a volte anche opere d'arte di indiscutibile e inestimabile valore. Il libro cita la Venere di Morgantina, il cratere di Eufronio, il Getty Bronze, e tanti altri. Nonostante il libro sia un po' lunghetto, entra nei dettagli di molte dinamiche, sia nei consigli di amministrazione dei musei, sia nelle stanze dei ministeri italiani. In definitiva: spero che ne venga fatta una traduzione o un riadattamento in italiano. Alla fine, leggendolo, scatta una molla di orgoglio patriottico che è un piacevole effetto collaterale.
I'm Italian and didn't know how big the looting problem was, and especially the big countries involved! Good work.
I recommend it to everyone: I was fascinated reading it!