(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 2 - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Thursday that Italy has every right to demand the return of a Greek bronze statue, the Victorious Athlete, attributed to Lysippus (Lysippos) that is currently in the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, California.
    The court unanimously ruled to reject an appeal filed by the J.
    Paul Getty Trust against the confiscation order issued by the Italian authorities, saying there had been no violation of the right to protection of property.
    It said the Italian authorities acted with the purpose of recovering an unlawfully exported piece of cultural heritage.
    It said the confiscation order had been proportionate to the aim of ensuring the return of an object that was part of Italy's cultural heritage "owing to the Getty Trust's negligence or bad faith in purchasing the statue despite being aware of the claims of the Italian State and their efforts to recover it".
    The statue, which dates from the classical Greek period and is also known as the 'Athlete of Fano' and the 'Lysippus of Fano', was discovered by fishermen in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of the Marche town of Pedaso, in 1964.
    It was sold in 1965 to an unknown party.
    In July 1977 the Getty Trust bought the statue in Munich through a contract concluded in the United Kingdom for $3.95 million.
    It entered the United States via Boston in August 1977 and arrived at the Getty Villa in Malibu in March 1978.
    "The Court noted that the domestic authorities had concluded that the Getty Trust, by purchasing the Statue in the absence of any proof of its legitimate provenance and with full knowledge of the Italian authorities' claims over it, had disregarded the requirements of the law, at the very least negligently, or perhaps in bad faith," the ECHR said.
    "The Court was satisfied that the domestic courts' assessment had not been arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable".
    Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano hailed the European Court of Human Rights' ruling.
    "It's an issue which we have worked on intensively," he said.
    "Over 100 works (of art) have been returned from the US since I became minister, and the same number have come from Great Britain.
    "In addition to that, I have issued a circular letter with which we have established that no more loans will be made to museums that have disputes with Italy".
    Fano Mayor Massimo Seri told ANSA that the "whole city is immensely satisfied at the news of the return of an object with which it has formed an extremely strong bond, even from far way." The Lysippos has been contested ever since the Getty bought it for almost four million dollars in 1977 from German art dealer Herman Heinz Herzer, paying nearly 800 times the $5,600 that Italian dealers paid the fishermen for it in 1964.
    Italy has long claimed the statue was smuggled out of the country.
    The Italian culture ministry has also asked the Getty to return another four stolen works: a canvas by 19th century painter Camillo Miola, The Oracle at Delphi, stolen from the Istituto San Lorenzo in Aversa near Naples between 1943 and '46; two Roman era marble lions that were in Palazzo Spaventa at Preturo near Aquila; and a mosaic of Medusa stolen from the Museo Nazionale Romano.
    The ministry has asked the Getty to review the provenance of the works, which Italy thinks have either been stolen, or exported without permission.
    In the past the Los Angeles-based institute agreed under duress to hand back some 40 contested art treasures, including an iconic 5th-century BC statue of Aphrodite. (ANSA).