Getty kouros

The Getty Kouros

The Getty kouros is an over-life-sized statue in the form of a late archaic Greek kouros.[1] The dolomitic marble sculpture was bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, in 1985 for ten million dollars and first exhibited there in October 1986.[2][3][4]

Despite initial favourable scientific analysis of the patina and aging of the marble, the question of its authenticity has persisted from the beginning. Subsequent demonstration of an artificial means of creating the de-dolomitization observed on the stone has prompted a number of art historians to revise their opinions of the work. If genuine, it is one of only twelve extant complete kouroi. If fake, it exhibits a high degree of technical and artistic sophistication by an as-yet unidentified forger. Its status has remained undetermined: latterly the museum's label read "Greek, about 530 B.C., or modern forgery".[5] Dr. Timothy Potts, the director of the Getty, said that the sculpture was removed from display in 2018 due to its disputed authenticity.[6]

  1. ^ Getty Villa, Malibu, inv. no. 85.AA.40.
  2. ^ Thomas Hoving. False Impression, The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes, 1997, p. 298.
  3. ^ Sorensen, Lee. Frel, Jiří K. In The Dictionary of Art Historians. Accessed 28/8/2008.
  4. ^ MICHAEL KIMMELMAN. [1] In "ART; Absolutely Real? Absolutely Fake?". Accessed 26/1/2014
  5. ^ J. Paul Getty Museum. Statue of a kouros. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
  6. ^ L.A. Times Review: Something’s missing from the newly reinstalled antiquities collection at the Getty Villa retrieved 03/05/2020.