Statue said to depict Roman general seized from museum in looting investigation

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”The Emperor as Philosopher," a Roman-era statue is thought to represent Marcus Aurelius (Image: AP)
”The Emperor as Philosopher," a Roman-era statue is thought to represent Marcus Aurelius (Image: AP)

Investigators seized a $20million headless bronze statue from a US museum after authorities launched inquiries into objects looted from Turkey.

This comes as part of ongoing investigations into an old smuggling network that moved antiquities looted from Bubon into southwestern Turkey and trafficked them through Manhattan, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. No further details of the investigation were provided.

A warrant signed by a Manhattan judge ordered the seizure of the statue on August, 14. The Cleveland Museum of Art acquired the object in 1986 and it was a popular feature in its collection of ancient Roman art. The 76-inch (1.9-meter) statue dates from A.D. 180 to 200 according to the district attorney’s office.

The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported that the statue was removed from view more than two months ago and that the museum changed the description of the piece on its website, where it now calls the statue a “Draped Male Figure " instead of indicating a connection to Marcus Aurelius.

Turkey first made claims about the statue in 2012 when it released a list of nearly two dozen objects in the Cleveland museum’s collection that it said had been looted from Bubon and other locations. Museum officials said at the time that Turkey had provided no hard evidence of looting.

Said looting organization would have been in actio over 37 years ago. Zeynep Boz of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said of the statue said: “The enduring dispute surrounding this matter has kept him separated from his hometown.”

In an emailed statement, Boz said the seizure “provides a strong sense of hope, long-awaited, for the rectification of a willing wrongdoing.”

Todd Mesek, a spokesperson for the museum, said in a statement Thursday that the museum could not comment on the Marcus Aurelius statue while it is the subject of litigation.

Mesek said the museum “takes provenance issues very seriously and reviews claims to objects in the collection carefully and responsibly.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has worked in recent years to repatriate hundreds of objects looted from countries including Turkey, Greece, Israel, and Italy. It was unclear who might be targeted in the investigation of the statue seized in Cleveland.

Marcus Aurelius ruled as Roman emperor from A.D. 161 to 180 and was a Stoic philosopher whose “Meditations” have been studied over the centuries. The seized statue shows a man in flowing robes holding one hand in front of him in a regal pose.

Emilia Randall

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