A statue of the love goddess Aphrodite is returning home to Sicily, making property in Italy the ideal place for European art-lovers to be in March 2011.

The opening ceremony for the statue's return is being planned for the end of March, when it should have completed the nearly 6,500 miles from Malibu, California to Sicily.

Frequent residents of property in Italy may be familiar with the seismic activity of the region, with minor quakes a common occurrence, reports the Associated Press.

However, Aphrodite is expected to remain safe and stable thanks to a special quake-dampening base on which she is to stand.

The return of the statue to Sicily is the continuation of an agreement to repatriate a number of relics taken from Italy to California in previous generations.

In all, 40 separate items have been returned to Italian control by the J Paul Getty Museum, with some swapping of other artworks negotiated in exchange.

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