Research Engine, Search Thyself!

Today's bombshell LAT article on the Getty reveals not only that half the antique masterpieces in the Getty collection were purchased illegally, but also that Getty buyers (including antiquities curator Marion True) were aware that they were buying looted artifacts from dealers who were operating a fencing circuit from Italy. A sense of fairness compels me to say that provenance cases are perhaps never so clear cut as this one appears, but then you click on those documents linked in the article and see "we knowingly buy stolen goods" and "we knowingly deal with liars" spelled out in a Getty official's handwriting, and you're led to wonder whether the antiquities group is sufficiently competent to be crooked.

When you google "provenance," the first relevant hit you find is the Getty Provenance Index. Not concerned with antiquity, so it's unfair of me to pair this resource to today's revelations, but nevertheless it's an unfortunate irony.