ROME (AP) — The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has vowed to assert its right to keep an important Greek statue after Italy's highest court rejected its appeal of a ruling that ordered the artwork to be returned to Italy.

The ANSA news agency said the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal outright earlier this week.

"Victorious Youth," a nearly life-sized bronze dating from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., is one of the highlights of the Getty collection.

An Italian court in Pesaro had ordered it returned in 2010, at the height of Italy's campaign to recover antiquities looted from its territory and sold to museums and private collectors around the globe.

The Getty says Italy has no claim to the bronze, which was pulled from the sea in 1964.