Authorities in the US have returned dozens of antiquities to Turkey following a repatriation ceremony in New York on 8 December. Among them were two ancient sculptures, including a Roman bronze statue, surrendered by a private collector; two works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and dozens of terracotta reliefs from the Virginia Museum of Arts (VMFA). The returns, announced by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, follow multiple criminal investigations into international trafficking networks.
According to the DA’s office, traffickers exploited periods of instability and weak oversight to plunder sites such as Bubon, routing objects through Switzerland, the UK and the US. Once in New York, prosecutors say, dealers allegedly fabricated provenance records that allowed looted artefacts to be exhibited, published, and sold.
Among the objects returned was a marble head of the Greek orator Demosthenes, which had been seized earlier this year from the Met by investigators from the DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU). According to prosecutors, the sculpture, valued at around $800,000, was illegally removed from Turkey and entered the international art market through falsified provenance records before being donated to the Met in 2012.
In a statement to The New York Times, a spokesperson for the Met said that “new information came to light that made it clear that the work rightfully belongs to Turkey”, adding that the museum has expanded its provenance research team and continues to review its collection in collaboration with law enforcement.
Also returned was a headless bronze statue of a nude Roman emperor, surrendered by the California-based collector Aaron Mendelsohn under a deferred prosecution agreement. Prosecutors said the sculpture was looted in the late 1960s from Bubon, a Roman-era archaeological site in south-central Turkey that once housed a monumental imperial shrine, or sebasteion. The bronze is one of at least 13 imperial statues believed to have been stolen from the site and trafficked through Europe and the US. Under the terms of the agreement, Mendelsohn surrendered all claims to the sculpture, valued by prosecutors at $1.33m, in exchange for the withdrawal of an arrest warrant. He did not admit wrongdoing.
Separately, the VMFA announced the return of 41 polychrome terracotta relief fragments from a 6th-century BC Phrygian temple at Düver, in south-central Turkey. The fragments entered the museum’s collection in the 1970s through purchases and gifts from US dealers. A spokesperson for the VMFA said the museum acted voluntarily after the ATU presented evidence that the objects had been illegally excavated and exported.
The restitutions show the growing pressure on museums and collectors to reassess historic acquisitions. Prosecutors said investigations linked to Bubon and other Turkish sites are ongoing, suggesting that further seizures and repatriations may follow.
