More confirmation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s fervent desire to get the Good Antiquities-keeping Seal of Approval for its new Greek and Roman Galleries, opening later this month. A few weeks ago, Gripebox revealed the frantic negotiations to insure the attendance of diplomats from Greece, Italy and other so-called “source nations,” who would thus be giving their tacit blessing to the objects that will be on display. Turns out, those efforts have been going on for years. In December, 2004, in response to a demand by the mayor of Monteleone di Spoleto for the return of the famous Etruscan Chariot, aka the Biga di Monteleone di Spoleto, which has been in the Museum for more than 100 years, its secretary and legal gunslinger Sharon Cott wrote to Tito Mazzetta, the lawyer representing the town. She respectfully declined its demand for the chariot’s return, expressing the Met’s hope “that representatives of the Italian government will be part of the celebration” and suggesting the mayor come along, too, to participate in an ancillary event promoting “the contributions of the Umbrian regoin to Etruscan art.” That velvety invitation was, however, delivered on the point of a stilleto. “Should your client be intent on pursuing what we respectfully submit is a futile legal claim to the Chariot or adopting some other adversarial posture, we could not engage in such a dialogue,” Cott concluded. The mayor will not be attending, but neither, Mazzetta tells me, is he abandoning the effort to recover the town’s two-wheeler.