The long-running trial of Marion True came to an abrupt end when a court ruled that the statute of limitations had passed on the charges. Despite having to leave her position at the Getty when the trial commenced five years ago, Marion True has been released by a court in Rome. The New York Times’s Elisabetta Povoledo spoke to Maxwell Anderson to explain the import of the trial:

The trial was a wake-up call, he added. “The notion that a single curator could be indicted for what was a practice of American museums led us to review how American museum collections were being built, ” he said. In 2008 the association adopted a “no provenance rule” forbidding members from acquiring antiquities that could not be adequately vetted. Ms. True “sacrificed herself on behalf of other museum directors in America,” Mr. Anderson said.

Paolo Ferri, the prosecutor who built the case against Ms. True and has since retired, said Wednesday that the trial had served as a signal to museums that buying objects without provenance had to end.

Time Limit Ends Antiquities Case of Ex-Curator (New York Times)