The bronze statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, smuggled out of Turkey in the 1960s, is set to return to the country. The statue, considered one of the rare bronze works of the ancient age dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, has been part of the collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the US.
In October 2023, the Cleveland Museum of Art filed a lawsuit against the seizure decision, arguing that the statue's origin is not certain. As reported by Gazete Duvar, the museum challenged the findings that linked the statue to Turkey.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations found Turkey's request for the statue's return justified and decided to seize the statue at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This decision was officially communicated to Turkey, according to Diken.
"Thanks to the strong cooperation between our Ministry, the New York Manhattan District Attorney's Office, and the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the Marcus Aurelius statue is being returned to Turkey after many years" said Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, according to Akşam.
"We continue to protect our cultural heritage. With international collaborations, we are retrieving our stolen artifacts one by one," Ersoy stated, according to Anadolu. He thanked all institutions, experts, and officials who contributed to the process.
The statue was smuggled abroad through illegal excavations from the Boubon Ancient City in Burdur, Turkey, in the 1960s. Over the years, it changed hands multiple times, losing trace. The statue depicts Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius as a philosopher, a representation that adds to its historical significance.
In 2021, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the New York Manhattan District Attorney's Office, and the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations Unit began the collaboration which resulted in the return of many rare Boubon-origin artifacts, including statues of Lucius Verus, Septimius Severus, and Emperor Caracalla, to Turkey.
Under the supervision of Ministry experts, a silicone foot mold of the statue was taken at the museum in May 2023. It was determined it matched the bronze statue pedestals in the Boubon Ancient City. Analyses conducted at the Curt Engelhorn Archaeometry Center laboratories in Germany definitively proved that the statue had been buried in Boubon for many years.
Archaeometry expert Prof. Dr. Ernst Pernicka, authorized by the Cleveland Museum, along with the Ministry's expert conservators, took samples for lead isotope, stone, and soil analyses from the Boubon Ancient City and the Valerianus statue and Marcus Aurelius statue in the Burdur Museum.
Following these findings, the Cleveland Museum of Art decided to return the Marcus Aurelius statue to Turkey.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.