The John Paul Getty Museum on Wednesday offered an olive branch to Italy aimed at breaking a deadlock in talks over returning disputed antiquities.
Getty Director Michael Brand said the Los Angeles museum was setting up a group of independent experts to establish the origin of a statue of Aphrodite at the centre of the row.
He invited Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and cultural heritage chiefs in Sicily, where the 4th-century BC Greek statue is thought to have been made, to send representatives to a May 9 workshop that will kick off a year-long study.
Among the experts already on board, Brand said, are New York University archaeology professor Clemente Marconi; Virginia University art historian, and co-director of the US Morgantina dig, Malcolm Bell; and Palermo University geochemistry professor Rosario Alaimo.
The study, Brand said, would examine pollen and earth taken from the statue when it was cleaned in 1988, in order to clear up the "complex and often contradictory" claims about its provenance.
Italy maintains that the statue, one of the jewels in the Malibu Getty Villa's lauded Greek and Roman collection, was looted from the ancient site of Morgantina in central Sicily.
The Getty says there is as yet no hard evidence to prove where it came from. Some studies have suggested it is a composite, put together from Sicilian limestone and Greek marble to form an irresistible object - the oldest large 'cult' statue of the goddess.
Brand recalled that, before talks broke down in December, the Getty proposed a joint investigation while keeping the statue in co-ownership - an offer Italy refused.
Rutelli has threatened to break off relations with the Getty unless the museum returns several dozen objects including the Aphrodite.
In January, in the wake of a long expose' in the Los Angeles Times, Rutelli said the Getty's claim to the Aphrodite was "crumbling".
The minister argued that the LA Times "has corroborated what the Carabinieri (art police) have always said, that it left Italy illegally".
Citing evidence turned up by the reporters, Rutelli said the Getty's claim to the piece rested on the "risible" claim that it once belonged to a tobacconist in a town on Italy's border with Switzerland.
"It's such a clear falsification (that) it's surprising a great institution like the Getty is still dragging its heels," Rutelli said.
Even if agreement is eventually reached on the Aphrodite, there is an even bigger sticking point in the negotiations: a third-century BC bronze 'Victorious Youth' attributed to the famous Greek sculptor Lysippos.
The athlete, which the Californian museum acquired in 1977, was found in the Adriatic, off the northeastern port of Fano, in 1964.
The Getty claims that it was found in international waters and so does not belong to Italy.
Italy does not dispute that the bronze was outside territorial waters when it was discovered, but stresses that it was taken out of Italy illegally.
Thursday's move by the Getty was seen as a bid to soften positions which had hardened since Rutelli's threat.
Last month Brand said "the Italian ultimatum is counter-productive," reiterating the Getty's position that it was willing to return 26 articles agreed in October.
He said the Californian institute, reputedly the world's richest museum, was convinced there was no compelling legal reason for it to lose the bronze athlete.
Brand hinted that "political" pressures had dictated Rutelli's new firmer stance and suggested that an ongoing Rome trial of a former Getty curator was "an attempt to gain greater influence over the Getty and other museums".
Brand also argued that Italy had expected too much in demanding 52 articles - three of which the Getty returned before the talks broke down.
When he issued his ultimatum on December 20, Rutelli said: "We have come to the end of the line".
"Either there's an agreement, with the return of all the works Italy has demanded, or we'll break off ties".
The deal with the Getty was to have been the third with major US institutions.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts have agreed to return key parts of their classical collections in return for loans of equivalent value.
