Millions of dollars in ancient Greek artifacts were recently repatriated to their mother country by New York authorities after they were identified at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
They include 2 ancient bronze helmets and stomach guards, a marble bust of a Roman emperor, and other pieces dating as far back as 2,700 BCE.
The objects were smuggled into the United States and laundered by dealers and collectors through false provenance, exhibitions, and museum donations, according to a statement from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office which oversaw the seizure and repatriation.
Greece’s Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, accepted the 15 items at a ceremonial handover in Manhattan on September 21st.
“It is particularly important that some of the artifacts we are taking delivery of today will be reunited with finds from the same excavation in the archaeological museum of Iraklio,” Mendoni said in the statement translated by the Greek press. “Some of these were illegally trafficked abroad and are now returning home.”
Listing the items in greater detail, 5 of the 15 objects were bronze and consisted of 2 helmets and 3 mitrai (belly guards) from to the late 7th century BCE which were traced back to looting that had occurred at the sanctuary on the hill of Prophet Elias at Afrati, Crete.
The sanctuary and nearby tombs were extensively plundered by looters between 1964 and 1966, and antiquities from the site were subsequently smuggled out of Greece. The 5 objects were acquired by a collector and later donated to the Met, and are valued at more than $2 million.
One of the helmet boasts breathtaking embossments of flowers, dogs, and a man with winged feet holding a twisted serpent.
Another item was a terracotta beaked jug dating to between 1750–1700 BCE and was looted from a burial assemblage in the Argolis-Corinthia region of Greece. The jug was then smuggled out of Greece through Switzerland and the United Kingdom before being acquired by the Met.
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The collection’s oldest item dates to 1,000 years before even the jug: a marble figurine of a woman and the cap of a marble box. The youngest items include 2 bracelets of bronze and gold, and a marble bust of Genius Augusti, the “divine spirit” of a Roman emperor according to Smithsonian.
Though the Met readily cooperated with the investigation—one of several that has removed over $95 million worth of art and antiquities from its collections over the years—Manhattan Assistant DA Matthew Bogdanos wrote, some years ago, that it must be asked why so many looted artifacts are ending up at the famous museum, and why is it that the DA is the only one identifying them.
Bogdanos, who leads the DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, has been a driving force behind a truly monumental effort of late to identify and seize trafficked art in the city.
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In a statement, the office wrote that it had “now convicted 18 individuals of cultural-property-related crimes; recovered more than 6,400 cultural treasures, including rare books, works of art, and antiquities, valued at more than $490 million; and returned more than 6,150 so far to 39 countries. The extradition of another 7 alleged traffickers is pending.”
A standout within this record was the astonishing recovery of 600 stolen artworks and artifacts, valued at $90 million, conducted in disparate operations through coordination with the Italian police.
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