Newman Reviews Chasing Aphrodite

Tax Prof Joel Newman (Wake Forest), Book Review, Tex. L. Rev. Dicta (2011) (reviewing Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum (2011)):

Chasing Aphrodite is mostly a story of law—laws ignored, laws finessed, and ultimately, laws triumphant. Necessarily, it is a story about lawyers and legal process. Penny Cobey, the Getty’s acting general counsel, spent two days prepping Marion True for her interview with Italian authorities, only to be blindsided when True disclosed all sorts of things to the Italians that she had neglected to mention the day before. Later, Cobey gave her superiors an honest assessment of the illegality of what they were doing and of the likely legal consequences. Of course, she lost her job.

Chasing Aphrodite is a rollicking good yarn, well told by two Los Angeles Times reporters. There are very few heroes, and many villains. At least, the villains are interesting.