Farewell to Paul Giorgio Ferri, the judge who fought art criminals

Magistrate Paolo Giorgio Ferri left us in Rome on June 14. He died suddenly of a heart attack, his family reports. Ferri was known for his many years of work against art criminals: for about two decades he had successfully hunted down traffickers, grave robbers, corrupt dealers, fences, and shady museum directors. His greatest insight was to take the battle against art predators to the courts , and through this innovation he enabled many works to be returned to their rightful owners.

Born in Rome in 1947, he had graduated in law from La Sapienza University in Rome and entered the judiciary in 1977. His great passion for art and history had led him to specialize in crimes against cultural heritage. As deputy prosecutor of the Rome court, he had conducted numerous investigations: among many achievements were the capture of the merchant Giacomo Medici who had illicitly exported thousands of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman artifacts from Italy, and for the trial of Marion True, curator of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The proceedings ended in 2011 with the statute of limitations but kicked off a wave of restitutions by many American museums (including the Metropolitan in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Getty itself): fears of new trials were high. According to journalist Fabio Isman, a friend of his, Ferri “opened a path that will now hopefully be followed.”

“He went down in history for writing one of the most important pages in the fight against the illicit trafficking of archaeological, historical and artistic heritage goods,” , said Alessandro Garrisi, president of the National Association of Archaeologists, "Ferri understood very well that the dealer was only a piece within a much larger system that goes from the simple tombarolo arriving, with the brokerage of the trafficker, all the way into public museums and private collections around the world. As we mourn his passing, the greatest hope is that his baton can be promptly picked up by archaeologists and magistrates of equal sensitivity, so that the fight against crimes against heritage will not be set back and will continue with conviction to protect our common heritage.

Farewell to Paul Giorgio Ferri, the judge who fought art criminals

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