Antiquity Exhibit at Cleveland Museum Is Canceled

A traveling exhibition of ancient treasures from Sicily that was scheduled to open at the Cleveland Museum of Art in September was canceled on Wednesday after officials from the tiny Italian island complained that the art loan was hurting its economy, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, reported.

“It’s very disappointing,” said David Franklin, the museum’s director. “These things don’t happen very often in the art world. This is unprecedented for me and I think unprecedented for all of us.”

The exhibition, “Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome,” which opened April 3 at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, includes 145 items that celebrate the Greek culture that flourished on the island between the 5th and 3rd centuries, B.C.E. In a statement, Mr. Franklin said that despite the intervention of the United States embassy in Rome and the Italian embassy in Washington, the autonomous Sicilian government would not budge.

Culture officials on the island were particularly exercised that two of the exhibition’s major attractions, a six-foot-tall statue of a charioteer and gold libation bowl, popular tourist attractions, had been missing for so long from Italy.

Last month, in response to questions from the New York Times, Mariarita Sgarlata, Sicily’s highest cultural official, had asked: “How would an American tourist react who, trusting his Frommer’s travel guide, has gone out of his way to visit the island of Mozia to admire this work of art in its original setting, only to discover that the statue is in Tokyo or St. Petersburg?”

She has already noted that Sicilian officials never signed a contract formally authorizing the exhibitions, although the items were allowed to leave Italy for the Getty.

Ms. Sgarlata, was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

In response to a list of questions from the Plain Dealer about the possibility of the cancellation, emailed on Tuesday, Emiliano Colomasi, Ms. Sgarlata’s spokesman, told the newspaper that he had forwarded the questions to her and that he hoped she would respond soon.

“The assessor these days is very busy and wants to respond in person without delegating to anyone,” Mr. Colomasi said. .