Recently, it sold out a $25 million Athena II, which will devote up to 20 percent of its assets to acquiring antiquities.

A year after putting an American museum curator on trial on charges of acquiring antiquities illegally, the Italian government has had some impressive results.

You see, I've been acquiring antiquities for almost thirty-five years.

Cultural property experts said yesterday that they were eager to know whether the Met would adopt stricter policies about acquiring undocumented antiquities.

In its early years, the Museum acquired natural history specimens, ethnographic materials, and antiquities.

Although it is typical for museums acquiring antiquities to notify the countries of origin, Mr. Vermeule said he had not done so in this case.

For example, he helped stop museums from acquiring illicitly recovered antiquities.

In 1970, it drafted a declaration saying that its museum would no longer acquire antiquities without absolute knowledge of their provenance.

"More than ever, they want to know whether they may have acquired any illegal or stolen antiquities so they can return it to the country of origin."

This, however, seldom happened as the Department rarely had the funds to acquire major antiquities.