With Chasing Aphrodite, Los Angeles Times investigative reporters Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino delve into a scandal at the highest echelon of the art and antiquities market. Their target, the richly endowed Getty Museum, purchased objects looted or illicitly smuggled from other countries and brokered illegal tax write-offs for donors by falsifying appraisals to inflate the tax deductions. The scandal shook many other American museums, whose collections include objects of dubious provenance. Many curators, however, argued that ancient artifacts were better off in their climate-controlled museums, where their display made them the patrimony of the whole world. After a decade of wrangling, the object that sparked the controversy, an exquisite statue of Aphrodite, was returned to Italy. Chasing Aphrodite is a page-turning look into the greed and conspicuous corruption of the global cultural industry. (David Luhrssen)
