Statuary Libel?

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By Ned Zeman

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If they make a movie about Columbia University professor James Beck, they should call it "Midnight Expression." Beck now sits in an Italian court as it considers whether the noted art historian must be jailed on charges of "aggravated slander." The verbiage in question: Beck's assertion that Gianni Caponi's restoration of a sculpture in the cathedral of Lucca looked as if it had been treated with acid, "cleaned with Spic and Span, and polished with Johnson's Wax." Suffice it to say this prosecution would be laughed out of American courts.

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