In recent years, several of America�s leading art museums have voluntarily given up their finest pieces of Classical art to the governments of Italy and Greece. The monetary value is estimated at over half a billion dollars. Yet, for the most part, the museums gave up these prized objects under no legal obligation and without compensation. Why would they be moved to such unheard-of generosity? The answer lies at the Getty, one of the world�s richest and most troubled museums, and scandalous revelations that they had been buying looted antiquities for decades. Drawing on a trove of confidential museum records and frank interviews, Felch and Frammolino give us a fly-on-the-wall account of the inner workings of a world-class museum, and tell the story of the Getty's dealings in the illegal antiquities trade. The outlandish characters and bad behavior could come straight from the pages of a thriller--the wealthy recluse founder, the cagey Italian art investigator, the playboy curator, the narcissist CEO--but their chilling effects on the rest of the art world have been all too real, as the authors show in novelistic detail. Fast-paced and compelling, Chasing Aphrodite exposes the layer of dirt beneath the polished fa�ade of the museum business.