FRUSTRATED by the refusal of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to return prized antiquities allegedly looted from their homeland, Italy is threatening to break cultural ties with the museum if talks over the disputed artefacts are not resumed.

Italy has been fighting for more than a year for the return of several dozen pieces from the Getty, including a limestone statue of Aphrodite from the fifth century BC.

Successes have been scored with other American museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which have both surrendered some of their finest artefacts after the legality of their acquisitions was questioned.

But the Getty, which has returned only a handful of disputed artworks, remains the toughest nut for the Italians to crack.

Talks on the return of 52 artefacts, including the Aphrodite, have stalled in recent days. The unprecedented “cultural embargo” threatened by the Italians would bar the Getty from carrying out any research in Italy and deny it the chance to borrow any Italian artwork.

Francesco Rutelli, the Italian Culture Minister, told the Los Angeles Times that Italian patience had run out. “I tried to explain it amicably to the people responsible for the Getty for the past six months,” he said. “If they still haven’t understood it, I’m afraid the process of conciliation will end and a serious conflict will begin.”

The hardening in the Italian position came as new evidence was submitted in the trial of the former antiquities curator at the Getty, which suggested that the museum had turned a blind eye to the questionable provenance of the Aphrodite, the sculpture that has come to play the starring role in the dispute.

The trial in Rome of Marion True on charges of trafficking in stolen artefacts has no official connection with the claim to the disputed artefacts but evidence that has emerged there has added to the Government’s leverage as it seeks their return.

One hearing last month was devoted to police testimony suggesting that the Aphrodite was dug up at Morgantina, an important ancient site in Sicily. Shortly after, Mr Rutelli suggested that the Getty’s “room to manoeuvre is narrowing”.

The Getty bought the Aphrodite for $18 million in 1988 from Robin Symes, a London dealer, who had acquired it from Renzo Canavesi, a Sicilian in Switzerland, who said that it had been in private hands since 1939. On Friday the court learnt that Mr Canavesi had approached Ms True eight years later, offering further details of the origins of the statue, but that she had chosen not to pursue the information. To the Italians, this was key evidence of what they see as the museum’s brazen exploitation of the illicit trade in ancient art.

The Getty’s refusal to return the statue rests on the lack of evidence of its origins, but now it appears that the trust deliberately refused a chance to find that evidence. The Getty also continues to pay for its former curator’s defence.

The museum has already agreed to return several artefacts linked to a convicted art smuggler but is sticking on others, including the Aphrodite, for fear of lowering the bar of proof that will be demanded for the return of antiquities.

Italian experts who have analysed the sculpture say that the stone closely resembles that found in parts of central Sicily. Sicilian tomb robbers have also given evidence suggesting that the statue could have been excavated from Morgantina.

Since the statue’s purchase, the Getty has adopted tough new standards on acquisitions to narrow the possibility of acquiring looted antiquities.

Getty officials said this weekend that they still hoped for an agreement with the Italians that would preclude such drastic actions as an embargo.

Ron Hartwig, the spokesman for the Getty, said: “My sense is that wisdom and reason will reign here and the two sides, Italy and the Getty, will find a way to get past whatever problems exist in the short term.”

But the Italians seem determined to shame the museum by taking the dispute into the court of public opinion. “I don’t think they understand the gravity of the situation,” Mr Rutelli said last week. “You have a major museum and it is exhibiting dozens of stolen artefacts. Until now, we have negotiated out of the spotlight, but the spotlights could light up.”

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