One by one, museums in dispute with the Italian government over looted antiquities are reaching agreement. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art signed a deal in February, and talks with Princeton University are said to be well advanced.

Alone stands the J. Paul Getty Museum, whose exceedingly complicated negotiations with Rome have been plagued by delays and shown little progress.

Two factors continue to dog the talks, which are scheduled to resume this month: the sheer volume of material that the Italians want the Getty to return, including some of the museum's most prized possessions, and the criminal prosecution of former Getty antiquities curator Marion True.

Officially, the True trial and the broader issue of what, if any, antiquities the Getty will return are separate matters. Inevitably, however, the two are intertwined, locked in a poisonous embrace in which actions taken in support of one could badly hurt the other.

True has denied Italian charges that she conspired with art dealers either implicated in or convicted of involvement in the massive antiquity-trafficking network that illegally has channeled valuable pieces to the world's museums and private collectors for decades. If she were to change course and admit guilt, she could probably escape jail time. But her admissions might weaken the Getty's bargaining position.

The Getty, on the other hand, could follow the Met's lead and agree to a program of returning objects and then borrowing them back. But doing so might jeopardize True's ability to defend herself. Or, if True felt abandoned by the Getty, she might turn on her former employer and implicate the rich institution in other wrongdoing.

True was forced to step down in October from the curatorship she had held for 19 years, but the Getty is paying her legal bills. Her attorneys confirmed a number of contacts with Getty representatives during the trial, which began nearly 11 months ago.

Faced with this quandary, Getty officials have tried to open several alternative channels in their negotiations, in what some Italian officials think is an effort to find a more sympathetic ear in the government.

Italian negotiators are demanding that the Getty agree to give back all 52 precious objects that figure in the case against True. Several, such as a 2,400-year-old marble statue of the goddess Aphrodite, have been on display for years at the Getty Museum. As part of the deal, Italy would agree to allow some of the items to be displayed in the museum's galleries as long-term loans. Getty officials, however, are contemplating the return of fewer items, according to Italian negotiators.

Ronald Olson, the top-gun attorney hired by the Getty as outside counsel to sort out the mess, spent several days here in late May and early June to explore new contacts with the Italians. Olson declined to discuss these meetings in detail, saying the issue was at too sensitive a point.

"Getty is seriously interested in resolving its difficulties with Italy," Olson said in a telephone interview. "Getty is serious about bringing about a successful conclusion."

According to other sources, Olson elicited the help of U.S. Ambassador Ronald Spogli, a prominent equities investor in Los Angeles before President Bush nominated him for the Rome embassy post a year ago. Spogli's California background means he probably moved in many of the same circles as Getty trustees, but his extensive work on corporate boards did not include the Getty's, an embassy official said.

Olson also apparently secured a meeting for Getty Museum Director Michael Brand with Italy's new cultural minister, Francesco Rutelli. Brand early this year held talks with Rutelli's predecessor and later expressed confidence that he had made headway. But the previous government was ousted in elections in April, and Brand may feel he has to start anew.

Rutelli confirmed last week that he would meet with Brand, but he insisted that Italy would not back down from its position. The meeting is expected to take place Monday, in effect relaunching negotiations.

"Our request for the restitution of all of the trafficked works — and I say all — is our priority," Rutelli told the Italian daily Il Messaggero. "This is in the interest of the American museums, as well. This explains to the trustees and officials that the period of great plunder is over."

Brand also met with Italian diplomats in California on Feb. 20. In that meeting, according to an Italian official, Brand indicated that some members of the Getty board of trustees were reluctant to settle with Italy while True's trial continued, lest it appear the institution was deserting her cause and making her a scapegoat.

Italian prosecutors in the True case, frustrated at what they see as a lack of cooperation from the former curator, consider it a misjudgment for the Getty to hold off on settling with Italy. The museum's resistance, they say, could be construed as a deeper conspiracy. They also reason that if the Getty reaches a deal, True will be more likely to cooperate.

Lead prosecutor Paolo Ferri said he favored offering leniency to True and her co-defendant, 87-year-old art dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr., if they were to admit guilt and describe the nuts and bolts of the antiquity-trafficking network. Ferri said he was more interested in information and sending a message of deterrence than seeing True and Hecht behind bars.

"We are not dealing with hardened criminals here," Ferri said.

True's lead attorney, Franco Coppi, and lawyers for Hecht did not respond to phone calls seeking comments for this article.

The trial itself has dragged on since opening in July. In 11 hearings, Ferri and the prosecution have presented hundreds of Polaroid snapshots and documents confiscated in raids on dealers' warehouses. The material shows archeological artifacts — sculptures, frescoes, vases, urns and so forth — still caked with dirt or wrapped in newsprint, evidence of having been freshly dug up from Italy's numerous ancient tombs. Many of the items were then traced to the Getty's shelves and display rooms.

It is illegal to excavate antiquities in Italy or to export them without government permission.

In the most recent hearing, on May 31, prosecutors presented a picture of two magnificent marble griffins, mythical eagle-headed lion-like beasts, covered in dirt and plopped in the trunk of a car. The picture was confiscated in a raid on a warehouse belonging to Giacomo Medici, an earlier co-defendant of True's who was convicted last year. Experts testified that the ancient statuary could be traced to southern Italy because of the unusual color and type of marble. The griffins today are in the newly reopened Getty Villa, the museum's showcase for its antiquities collection.

True's attorneys have not sought to refute the evidence, but rather have said she purchased items in good faith, unaware of their murky origin.

The next hearing is set for Wednesday.

Italian officials say that whether or not they get a conviction of True and Hecht, their point has been made: The illegal theft of archeological patrimony must stop. Ferri cites a recent case of 15 Etruscan vases that were being sold on the black market for a fraction of their value, evidence that Italy's criminal prosecutions had dented the smugglers' trade.

"The political meaning of this trial is now irreversible," Ferri said.

Outside experts agree, to a point. Valerie Higgins, an archeology expert and chair of the arts and humanities department at the American University of Rome, said the Getty case would help cement a trend among museums toward paying more attention to the cultural context of treasures.

The case "certainly made people a lot more cautious," she said. "The idea of going around the world buying objects and taking them home is really the modus operandi of another era. In the past, it was convenient to turn a blind eye, but I don't think they would do that today." But she said that private collectors, subject to less scrutiny and less likely to be confined by scruples, would not be deterred.