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November 1, 2024

Friday, November 01, 2024 - ,, No comments

Edoardo Almagià Wanted: Manhattan DA Seeks Arrest of Dealer in Major Antiquities Smuggling Case

Just over a year ago, ARCA published a post highlighting suspect artefacts which passed through Michael L. Ward's variously named galleries which were worth further exploration.

In that blog post, it was noted that, according to Edoardo Almagià's Italian sentencing document, the convicted Italian dealer sold Michael Ward the following artefacts:

a. A black figure kylix;
b. A marble lion mask;
c. A  marble sculpture depicting a draped woman; 
d. A terracotta mask;
e. A torso of Aphrodite;
f. A romanesque capital;
g. A cameo female bust in marble;
h. A Roman marble urn;
i. A python crater from  Paestum  + 2 bronze vases;
j. A black figure olpe and marble torso;
k. 2 Attic craters, a hydria and abell crater.

Almagià, a Princeton-educated antiquities dealer, was born in New York to prominent Jewish Italian immigrant parents.  Once a high-profile dealer, between 1980 and 2006 he conducted lucrative sales to numerous museums and collectors, mingling with fallen-from-grace art-world elites like Marion True, Dietrich von Bothmer, and Michael Padgett.

Triade Capitolina on display at the Palazzo del Quirinale

1992

Almagià first became a person of interest in 1992 during Italian investigations. Facing charges for his own crimes, notorious capozona Pietro Casasanta revealed to interrogators that he had shopped the freshly looted Triade Capitolina to Almagià for his U.S. clients.  Casasanta told Carabinieri officers that he had sent the dealer a Polaroid of the recently excavated sculpture which depicts the tutelary deities of Rome—Jupiter, flanked by an eagle, Juno, and Minerva in a Corinthian helmet—shortly after it was unearthed in Guidonia Montecelio, near Rome. 

Almagià reportedly offered to pay Casasanta a meagre $20,000 for the multi-million-dollar statue, and after a bit of drama between the pair, Casasanta declined on the offer and sold hislooted marble sculpture to the owner of Atelier Amphora, Mario Bruno, another suspect intermediary dealer operating in Lugano, who also had zero compunction about buying suspect art and selling it onward. 

1996

By 1996, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) had seized two dozen Etruscan ceramics from the New York Upper East Side gallery of Renee and Robin Beningson which had ties to Edoardo Almagià.  According to that investigation, all 24 artefacts at New York's Antiquarium Ltd., had been looted from what is now known as the Parco Archeologico di Crustumerium. This site represents an ancient city which once overlooked the Tiber between Eretum and Fidenae north of Rome.   

Later evidence would determine that following the seasonal closure of an authorised excavation at Crustumerium in July 1987,  Almagià had hired tombaroli—professional looters—to pick up where the departing archaeologists had left off. 

The dealer is then alleged to have had the goods, extracted by the looters, smuggled out of Italy, passing first through Switzerland, before ultimately travelling overseas to New York where they came into the control of the Beningsons.

2000

Almagià’s next brush with the law came when he was stopped at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International airport in Queens, New York in 2000 with two stolen Italian frescoes from the ancient city of Vulci that he had falsely declared.  

Six weeks later, one of his commercial shipments was also stopped in Newark, New Jersey.  That shipment contained five stolen Italian antiquities and was again accompanied by false documentation. 

2006

By 2006, Almagià’s high life as a prestigious dealer cracked completely when, in April 2006, Special Agents with the US Department of Homeland Security, with intel assistance from officers with Italy's Carabinieri, obtained the legal authorisation to enter and photograph the contents of the dealer's New York apartment on 169 East 78th Street, as well as his rental storage space at Manhattan Mini-Storage, located at 420 E 62nd Street in New York.  There, officers documented dozens of antiquities and stacks of business records which coldly outlined the extreme excesses of this dealer's trafficking operations.   

Like Giacomo Medici's and Gianfranco Becchina's earlier archives, the "Almagià Archive" recovered in this law enforcement operation includes sales transaction ledgers, written in the dealer's handwriting, referred to by officers as the "Green Book" and the "Yellow Book" encompassing transactions  in 1997 and 1998.

In the "Green Book" Almagià listed, in concrete details, a total of 1,698 artefacts which he had sold out of his New York apartment. To do so, he often grouped artefacts by the tombarolo from whom he had purchased the material (identifying the supplying tombarolo by his nickname or initials).  Some entries listed in these ledgers designated both the price Almagià paid to his source, as well as the price he subsequently sold the artefact for.  On occasion, some entries even list to whom the looted artefact was sold onward to.

For example, one entry for an "Attic red fig. Lekythos w panther" shows that Almagià bought the object for $1,000 from "Mau," whom researchers identified as the tombarolo Mauro Morani).  He then asold the vessel onward to "antiq", the abbreviation for the previously mentioned New York gallery, Antiquarium, operated by Renee and Robin Beningson for $2,000.  

The extant pages of the "Yellow Book" document an additional 84 stolen antiquities or groups of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Almagià  and/or his cousin Peter Cesare Glidewell who operates a gallery space registered in the UK and operating in Spain known as Caylus Fine Art Limited.  The level of detail in both of these ledgers ultimately created a strikingly clear blue print, which, along with seized Day Planners, invoices, and lists, has given authorities a clear map to follow which has proven critical to this complex and lengthy investigation, and to tracing where each of the suspect artefacts handled by Almagià went after he cashed in. 

Through the initial work on this US investigation, seven antiquities were quickly identified as having been looted from Italy.  But while the review was still under way, Almagià used the intervening time to shift more suspect objects and their documentation from his apartment and storage facility into a shipping container which was then placed on a ship bound for Naples.  Afterward, he fled the country.

When the ship was intercepted at the port of Naples on December 14, 2006, Italian authorities recovered 37 paintings and numerous archaeological objects as well as thousands of documents and, the now tell tale Polaroid photographs used by traffickers during this time period.   

Immediately after the 2006 seizure in Naples,  Italian prosecutor Paolo Giorgio Ferri brought charges against the dealer, Princeton University Art Museum’s then-curator Michael Padgett and Mauro Morani a tomb raider and caposquadra who provided Almagià with first dibs on looted antiquities, for knowingly committing crimes against the cultural heritage of Italy.

Acquittal, Seizures, and Restitutions

Unfortunately, Almagià's criminal case in Italy was dismissed in 2012due to the statute of limitations, though the Italian courts upheld the confiscation of all relics previously in his possession.  IN making that ruling the presiding judge stated that his activities contributed to "one of the greatest sacks of Italian cultural heritage based on the sheer amount of stolen goods."

In connection with the U.S. side of the investigation, New York’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has diligently worked to identify over 2,000 stolen antiquities trafficked by Almagià.  To date they have recovered 221 of them, worth an estimated  $6 million. 

Of these, 150 objects were seized as part of the Michael Steinhardt investigation, with the New York billionaire having purchased a total of ten known and restituted items from the Italian. 

Arrest Warrant

Yesterday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office obtained an arrest warrant for Edoardo Almagià based upon three charges:

  1. Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree under Penal Law § 105.10(1)
  2. Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree under Penal Law § 190.65(1)(b)
  3. Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree under Penal Law § 165.50

This arrest warrant, totaling 80 pages, details the grave extent of this trafficking network and ultimately the harm he caused to Italy’s cultural heritage. As New York authorities await their day in court with this trafficker, the hope remains that dealers, collectors, and museums, with outstanding pieces purchased via this dealer or their subsequent handlers, will come forward and disclose the remaining pieces which are tied to Almagià.

October 12, 2023

Thursday, October 12, 2023 - ,,,,,,,, No comments

Unravel one antiquities looting and money laundering network and you might find another: the devil is in the details


"This Plaque was smuggled out of Italy by antiquities trafficker Eugene Alexander and into New York through the dealer Michael Ward, who was convicted this past September of Criminal Facilitation."

Inside what has come to be a rather boiler plate restitution press release announcing the return of 19 additional antiquities to Italy, the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan, slipped in a nice little Easter Egg when highlighting three of the object's heading back to Italy.  All had connections to well known antiquities traffickers, Gianfranco Becchina, Raffaele Monticelli, Jerome Eisenberg, Edoardo Almagià and Eugene Alexander. 

Along with these well-known names, the one line sentence quoted above refers to Michael L. Ward (b. 1943), the New York city antiquities dealer who managed a series of eponymous ancient art business entities, including:

  • Ward & Company Works of Art, LLC
  • Ward & Company Works of Art I, LLC
  • Ward & Company Works of Art, Inc.
  • Ward & Company, Fine Art, Inc.
  • Michael Ward Inc.

And yes, this is the same fox in the the federal government's chicken coop who was previously appointed by then-President George H. W. Bush in 1992 to serve on the United States Cultural Property Advisory Committee, the U.S. statutory body who is responsible for the domestic implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property of 1970.

Shortly after Ward's presidential appointment, the dealer found himself under the unwanted spotlight for attempting to sell 50 pieces of important Mycenaean jewellery, referred to as the Aidonia Treasure.  Dating to the 15th century BCE, these gold funerary pieces had been plundered in 1978 from a Mycenaean cemetery at Aidonia, near Nemea, in southern Greece. 

On 30 December 1993 Ward finagled his way out of his first messy situation via an out-of-court settlement wherein Greece agreed to drop their lawsuit against Ward and his gallery and Ward's gallery was allowed to donate the looted jewellery to the newly formed Society for the Preservation of Greek Heritage in Washington, D.C.   

In a stitch-up similar to Leonard Stern's later gifting of 161 works of Cycladic art via the Institute of Ancient Greek Culture of Delaware, Ward’s strategic use of, and donation to, a nonprofit charitable organisation enabled him to recoup his acquisition costs via a nice sized federal income-tax write-off.

Evidently, undeterred by this close call, the New York dealer continued to take risks, (and profited from) the purchase and sale of illicit antiquities via several networks of suppliers, who one by one, and over many years, were unveiled as corrupt. 

Ward's own "skin in the game" is clearly spelled out, beginning on page 114 of the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts document, where it is stated:

During this time, he [Ward] bought antiquities directly from known traffickers such as Giovanni Franco Becchina and Edoardo Almagià. He then sold them— typically with no listed provenance—to U.S. museums and prominent collectors, including Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman and Steinhardt. Ward’s attitude for due diligence and provenance is demonstrated by a 1992 fax to Steinhardt, in which he advises Steinhardt that “[t]he more you inquire about details of ownership, etc. the less likely you will appear (if there is, God forbid a question) a credible bona fide purchaser. Michael, you want to appear as dumb as possible!”

This document also describes Ward’s connection to the network of Italian dealer Gianfranco Becchina and as the direct purchaser of more than a dozen looted Italian artefacts documented in the business records of antiquities trafficker Edoardo Almagià.

But before highlighting just a few of the curious examples of plundered material handled by Ward, let's explore the charge he plead guilty to on September 8, 2023. 

New York Penal Law § 115.00 (1) Criminal Facilitation in the Fourth Degree

In many states, if a criminal helps another person commit a crime, they too have themselves committed a crime.  In the state of New York there are four different criminal facilitation crimes, the least serious of which, under New York Penal Law, is criminal facilitation in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor.

In order for Michael Ward to be found guilty under New York Penal Law § 115.00, the state of New York is required to prove, from all of the probative evidence gathered in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, each of the following three elements: 




Satisfying elements 1 and 2

According to Ward's criminal complaint, filed with the Criminal Court of the City of New York, County of New York on September 6, 2023, this dealer operated his gallery at 980 Madison Avenue, (between East 76th Street and East 77th) in the County and State of New York from 1982 onward, opening his first business on 4 June 1982 to be precise.  The criminal complaint also states that from 1999 through 2022, Ward facilitated a money laundering scheme initiated by Eugene Alexander which involved selling looted antiquities from several countries onward to European and American collectors.  

Alexander’s antiquities-trafficking operation, also mentioned in the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts document involved the use of local looters operating in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean who sent Alexander photos of freshly excavated antiquities.  Once selected, Alexander had the illicit objects smuggled into Germany where he had the artefacts cleaned and restored, sometimes using the restorer Flavio Bertolin and authenticating the pieces via Thermoluminescence (TL) Analysis conducted by Ralf Kotalla (who also sent authentication reports to other traffickers, including Gianfranco Becchina).  Once the artefacts had been tidied up and were ready for prime time, many of them made their way into important collections in the United States. 

Alexander is noted in Ward's indictment for circulating artefacts to individuals such as Michael Steinhardt, to Richard Beale of Roma Numismatics, and to Erdal Dere of Fortuna Galleries, among others.  To do so he used a series of shell corporations and offshore banks for payments.

In September 2020 the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York issued an indictment against Erdal Dere and Faisal Khan, the operators of Fortuna Fine Arts, charging them with defrauding antiquities buyers and brokers by using false provenances to offer and sell antiquities. That case is ongoing.   Richard Beale, the director of London-based auction house Roma Numismatics, pled guilty on 14 August 2023 to two counts of conspiracy, and three counts of criminal possession of stolen property, for his role in the sale of the gold Eid Mar coin, which fetched $4.19m (£3.29m) in 2020, and an ancient silver Sicily Naxos Coin, which sold at the same time for $292,000.

Ward's criminal complaint states that as many as 80 of Alexander's looted antiquities passed through Ward's New York gallery between 2015 and 2019.  For dozens of these, the collection histories vaguely listed their provenance as coming from an "ex Geneva private collection, acquired in the early 1990s" or similarly worded claims such as "ex Geneva private collection, acquired in the early 1980s."

Ward's complaint also states that HSI, the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recovered more than 35 of these suspect antiquities while executing a search and seizure warrant in New York on 5 September 2023 which he relinquished upon pleading guilty.  

Reviews of confiscated emails also demonstrate that Ward was involved in the facilitation of written documents which furthered Eugene Alexander's money-laundering enterprise, four of which were outlined in the complaint as: 
  • a July 30, 2017 document with Eugene Alexander, indicating that Ward accepted on consignment 89 antiquities valued at over $20 million. 
  • an October 30, 2018 document with Eugene Alexander, indicating that Ward accepted on consignment another 82 antiquities valued at over $27 million.
  • a January 10, 2019 blank form, provided by Eugene Alexander, used to state that on April 1, 2019, that Alexander had consigned or sold Ward 63 antiquities valued at over $29 million. 
  • and a January 25, 2019 document on Ward & Company letterhead with the Ward's signature that indicated Ward owed Eugene Alexander more than $4 million. 
Germany authorities, conducting a parallel investigation, executed a raid on Eugene Alexander's apartment on February 23, 2022, and recovered, among many objects, Alexander's computers, as well as incriminating correspondence between the Bulgarian dealer, traffickers, and the American gallerist.  Also recovered were photographs that looters had sent to Alexander depicting freshly looted antiquities prior to their being cleaned or restored. After the objects were made presentable, Alexander, with Ward's assistance, successfully sold many of the laundered pieces onward, with vague fabricated provenance documents and the occasional Art Loss Register certificate. 

Satisfying element 3

According to the testimony of HSI-ICE Special Agent Robert Fromkin, who reviewed the communications between Ward and Eugene Alexander, the volume of documented transactions involving looted antiquities between the two men, as well as the depiction of transactions that never actually occurred between the pair, or that repeated themselves over several documents, concretely confirmed that Ward had  rendered aid to a person, in this instance Eugene Alexander, who intended to commit a crime, and had engaged in conduct which provided said person with the means and opportunity for the commission thereof, and which in fact aided said individual, in committing a felony.

A brief look at a few of the pieces handled by Ward & Company.

Cyrene Deity - Steinhardt-Albertson Dt.76*
While the number of suspect antiquities sold by Mr. Ward to his wealthy clientele are too numerous to document in this single article, a few stand out and are worth mentioning, including this 2.5 meter tall 3rd - 2nd century BCE funerary monument, pictured at right, which represents a half-figure goddess.

A strikingly rare piece, this sculpture is likewise named in the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts, and was formally surrendered by the disgraced New York collector-mogul in early December 2021.  One of only ten known half-figured goddesses of this type, originating from the Necropolis of Cyrene, Steinhardt had purchased Dt.76 from Michael L. Ward on 20 November 2000 for the spritely sum of $1,200,000.   

On Ward's invoice, the plundered "Veiled Head of a Female" was described colourfully as:

“possibly from North Africa”and had “a light brown earthy deposit uniformly covering the head imparts to its surfaces an attractive, warm patina.”   

"Earthy deposits", all but screaming to the billionaire buyer that his purchase was freshly looted material, never before part of a known or established collection.   

Some Ward Objects are in important Museum Collections

In 2003 this 350 BCE Greek seated marble figure from a Grave Naiskos was accessioned into the collection of the Michael C. Carlos Museum and assigned object number 2003.005.001

From 1986 to 1992 Michael Ward is also known to have sold numerous artefacts to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman, some of which were later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum.   Other pieces can be found in the accession records of other US Museums. 

One object which remains a bone of serious contention is this highly contested 6th century BCE voluptuous bronze krater for mixing and storing wine. It shows definitive and was once loaned to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston by an anonymous lender.

The Krater of Koreshnica, as it has come to be known, was looted on/around 1996 
from a 6th century BCE Macedonian burial chamber near the village of Koreshnica, in the southern part of the Republic of Macedonia before being smuggled out of the country in contravention of the country's national law. 


In a January 5, 2012 article, written by journalist Vesna Ilievska, and published in Dnevnik, (Macedonian for the word "Journal"), a private daily newspaper in Macedonia, it was reported that Michel Van Rijn had information relating to the looted Krater of Koreshnica.


If Michel Van Rijn's statements are to be believed, the circulation of this looted object via Tkalec, adds yet another smuggling network to Mr. Ward's growing list of suspect supply chains. 


By:  Lynda Albertson

February 4, 2025

Tuesday, February 04, 2025 - ,, No comments

At a Glacial Pace: Why does the return of stolen art take years?

The Oracle at Delphi, 1881, by Camillo Miola

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to you door
By The Beatles

Sometimes the road from diplomatic agreement to restitution or seizure to restitution is a long and windy road like the lyrics of a Beatles song.  And in the announcement and publication of victories, which flash across the news, the general public sees only the superficial details, carefully curated to neutralise all the hard fought passages that allowed "Object A" to be returned to "Country B".   

Such is the case with The Oracle at Delphi (1881) by Camillo Miola, a neoclassical painting depicting the ancient Greek sanctuary of Delphi, where the Pythia, a high priestess of Apollo, delivered prophecies. The artwork portrays a dramatic scene within the grand temple, with the Pythia seated on a tripod, enveloped in mystical vapors, as she channels divine messages. A group of supplicants, including warriors and noble figures, eagerly awaits her pronouncements, their expressions reflecting awe, anticipation, and reverence. 

On August 11, 2022, ahead of their agreed upon negotiations, The J. Paul Getty museum made a widespread public announcement that it would be returning a number of objects in their collection to Italy including:

Orpheus and the Sirens (inv. 76.AD.11) acquired in 1976 from Bank Leu in Zurich,

Colossal Head of a Divinity (inv. 72.AL.96) acquired in 1996 from scandalous UK art dealer Robin Symes,

an Etruscan bronze thymiaterion (inv. 96.AC.253) acquired in 1996 from the Fleischman collection, It was sold to the Fleischmans in 1987 by Italian art dealer Edoardo Almagià.  A while back New York Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, who heads the Manhattan Office's Antiquities Trafficking Unit was quoted in an interview with the Princeton Alumni Weekly, saying: 

“If Almagià is the first name on your provenance, it is stolen.” 

a Mold for Casting Pendants, (75.AA.35) about 2nd century CE, donated by collector Lawrence A. Fleischman and his wife;

and lastly, a rather fanciful oil painting entitled The Oracle at Delphi, 1881 by Camillo Miola (72.PA.32), a neoclassical painting depicting the ancient Greek sanctuary of Delphi, where the Pythia, a high priestess of Apollo, delivered prophecies.  

This artwork portrays a dramatic scene within the grand temple, with the Pythia seated on a tripod, enveloped in mystical vapours, as she channels divine messages. A group of supplicants, including warriors and noble figures, eagerly awaits her pronouncements, their expressions reflecting awe, anticipation, and reverence. Miola’s use of rich colours, classical architecture, and meticulous detail captures the spiritual intensity and grandeur of the sacred ritual, emphasising the oracle’s central role in guiding ancient Greek society.

In their announcement they stated that the impetus for the return of the Sculptural Group of a Seated Poet (Orpheus) and two Sirens is evidence presented to them of their looting.  Their announcement fails to make mention of the fact that the artefacts had been seized earlier pursuant to a court order and no other details were presented for the remaining pieces going home but as we know by the names of the dealers that circulated them, they propensity for being problematic was high. 

But what about the Miola painting nothing was stated as to why this artwork was coming home?

While Orpheus and his two friends came home in 2022, its taken two years and five months after the Getty's initial and somewhat lacking announcement, for Camillo Miola's painting to arrive back in Naples, along with the oil painting Portrait of Vittorio Emanuele III, 1902 by Achille Talarico.  

The paintings having just arrived and been presented at Palazzo Matteotti in Naples, by Gaetano Manfredi the Mayor of Naples and Gen. Div. Francesco Gargaro, the Commander of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.  

But when and how long ago did this particular painting's story begin? And why is at that so many of these restitution announcements, which concretise agreements between museum parties and source country authorities such as the Carabinieri, or Italy or the USA's prosecutorial bodies, omit historical facts when it is exactly these historical facts which served as the evidence needed to persuade museums, or courts of justice that these artworks need to come home. 

We know that Miola's painting depicting Pythia was stolen from the San Lorenzo Institute of Aversa between 1943 and 1946.  But not much has been written in public records which elaborates upon its exit from Italy.  We know only that the painting left Italy at some point after the close of World War II arriving to America.  It was then consigned to Parke-Bernet in New York as coming from "a Private Collection", and sold on 24 February 1972 to Ira Spanierman, who operated the eponymous Spanierman Gallery (1961-2014).   He in turn sold it to the J. Paul Getty that same year.

According to the museum's accession record the provenance for this painting is:

By 1880 — Pinacoteca Provinciale (Naples, Italy)
until 1972 — Private Collection [sold, Parke-Bernet, New York, February 24, 1972, lot 273, to Ira Spanierman.]
since 1972 — Ira Spanierman (New York), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1972. 

Open source records show us that following a meeting of Italy's Committee for the Recovery and Restitution of Cultural Heritage, chaired by Minister Alberto Bonisoli Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage formally asked the J. Getty Museum on 9 May 2019 to consider the country's claim for the Victorious Youth bronze (no progress there yet) and to also evaluate the provenance of four objects in the museum's collections that were also stolen or exported without permission from Italy. 

Those four objects were:  

Camillo Miola "The Oracle of Delphi" stolen from the San Lorenzo Institute in Aversa between 1943 and 1946; 

two marble lions from the Roman era that were in the Palazzo Spaventa in Preturo (Aquila) and 

a Mosaic with Medusa stolen from the National Roman Museum. 

This request was signed by the secretary general Panebianco and emphasised Italy's ministry's full willingness to keep alive the consolidated relations with the Getty,  blah blah blah, and considers cultural diplomacy a priority, blah blah blah, and stated that the writers would like to identify a suitable date for a meeting between the two parties to further discuss the Italian request for the restitution of The Victorious Youth, or the Athlete of Fano, the bronze statue that was fished out in 1964 in the waters of Fano in the Marche region and was subsequently illegally exported from Italy as determined by Italy's courts.

From the museum's side, the Getty replied that it would start their verification with the technical staff and that a response will be sent "as soon as possible", which, given the presentation of Miola's painting back in Italy has happened five and a half years later, and two years after the museum acknowledged that they were in agreement to relinquish the artwork, one has to marvel at the almost glacial pace of restitutions. 

And while ARCA is more than pleased that these artworks have actually come home through mutually beneficial agreements between museums and ministries and law enforcement officers and art researchers doing diligent work, we do wish there was a little more information than just somber, happy, formal, tight-lipped presentations stating these works are once again home. 

Transparency in restitution agreements between museums and source countries is crucial for ensuring accountability and ethical stewardship of cultural heritage. Not to mention it also builds public trust.  

Too often, repatriation deals are negotiated behind closed doors, with mutually agreed upon formal announcements which are carefully worded and often vague, leaving out key details about the provenance research, legal considerations, and the conditions of return.  All facts which could help us learn why one object makes it home and another doesn't. Or why certain objects are returned home quickly, while others take years after a restitution is announced, delaying justice for affected communities. 

This lack of openness can fuel skepticism, and invites speculation and negative interpretation, where the length of delays from announcement to homecoming can be misinterpreted foot dragging on the museum's part.    

By committing to clear, public disclosure of restitution decisions—detailing the origins of looted works, the justification for their return, the collaborative efforts between museum staff and source nations, and the complex mechanisms that often delay repatriation—museums can demonstrate a genuine commitment to ethical responsibility and cooperation. Transparency in these processes not only fosters trust but also ensures that institutions are seen as proactive stewards of cultural heritage rather than merely responding to external pressure.

Greater transparency would not only strengthen international cooperation—providing provenance researchers with valuable roadmaps from successful restitution cases—but also help rebuild public trust in museums as institutions committed to rightful ownership and historical justice. Rather than treating returns as mere footnotes with minimal explanation, museums should fully articulate the reasons behind their decisions, reinforcing their role as ethical stewards of cultural heritage.

December 9, 2025

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The Difficult Calculus of Prosecuting Antiquities Crime : What the Aaron Mendelsohn Case reveals about knowingly possessing looted antiquities


On 2 September 2025, the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan issued a sharply worded arrest warrant for California collector Aaron Mendelsohn, alleging that he had knowingly purchased and possessed one of the looted Roman Imperial monumental bronze statues plundered from the Sebasteion, a religious sanctuary dedicated to the worship of the Roman emperors as gods, in Bubon. 

That warrant paints a picture, not of an unwitting buyer misled by the market attempting to perform due diligence on the object he purchased, but of an individual who, according to prosecutors, understood exactly what he was acquiring when he purchased the statue on 26 May 2007 from Royal-Athena Galleries for USD 1,330,000.  Even the object's invoice clearly states the object as “said to be from Bubon, Turkey. Late 2nd - early 3rd Century AD” leaving little ambiguity about the statue's claimed origin.

The warrant states plainly that Mendelsohn bought this “Nude Emperor” statue knowing it had been looted from Bubon, Türkiye in the 1960s, a site famously and illegally plundered, with several of its bronze figures dispersed through the international market for decades.  Prosecutors further allege that Mendelsohn exchanged correspondence with art historians, curators, and conservators in which the statue’s origins were plainly discussed. The DA’s conclusions rested not only on their own investigative research but also on email communications that investigators say illustrate, with unusual clarity, the collector’s awareness of the statue’s problematic origins both at the time of purchase and afterward.

While Mendelsohn had once been tentatively been labeled as an “innocent purchaser” early in the New York investigation inquiry, this assessment changed as investigators uncovered additional evidence, including email correspondence that demonstrated the collector's awareness of the bronze's find spot. By the time the warrant was issued, prosecutors stated they were “increasingly convinced he had not acted in good faith.”

Although Mendelsohn’s lawyer, Marcus A. Asner, claimed the emails described in the New York arrest warrant document were taken “out of context” and insisted his client neither knew nor believed the bronze came from Bubon, the documentation prepared by the District Attorney’s Office firmly contradicts that claim.  In addition to an invoice which cited the statue's find location as "possibly Bubon", investigators highlighted three instances in which the California philanthropist explicitly acknowledged that the torso had been excavated at Bubon in the 1960s, a date that clearly places the object's illicit export in violation of the Republic of Türkiye's cultural property laws.

To J. Michael Padgett, Mendelsohn wrote:

“It is a 2d century torso about 72 inches high that was exxavated at Boubon, Turkey in the 1960's.” 

It is worth mentioning that a year earlier, in 2006, Italian prosecutor Paolo Giorgio Ferri brought charges against the dealer, Princeton University Art Museum’s then-curator Michael Padgett and Mauro Morani a tomb raider and caposquadra who provided plundered material to Edoardo Almagià, an alleged trafficker who as of 1 November 2024 has an outstanding warrant requested by the same New York prosecutor's office. 

To Professor John Pollini, USC specialist on Roman bronzes, Mendelsohn wrote:

“I may be acquiring a monumental bronze torso exxavated from a sebasteon in Boubon, Turkey, in the 1960's.” 

And to Los Angeles conservator Jerry Podany, Mendelsohn he even named some of the hands the statue had passed through in its early circulation:

“The piece was acquired by the Lipson family in 1967 from George Vaccos [sic] in Basel and was part of the excavation in the 1960's from Bubon, Turkey. ” 


Much later, on 1 September 2023, Padgett even sent Mendelsohn one of ARCA's own blog posts on stolen Bubon bronzes and a link to the American Turkish Society, suggesting Mendelsohn donate Nude Emperor before it gets seized. 

Despite the strength of the aforementioned allegations and the clarity of the prosecutors’ position, the case concluded this week not with a criminal trial, but with a negotiated settlement.  Under agreed terms, in late September 2025 Mendelsohn agreed to surrender the bronze statue, relinquish all ownership claims to said artefact, and pay for its shipment to Manhattan. In return, prosecutors agreed to withdraw the arrest warrant and suspend criminal prosecution for one year, provided Mendelsohn violates none of the agreement’s terms. This settlement also did not require the California collector to admit the statue was looted, nor did it require any admission of wrongdoing.

That outcome secured the return of this extraordinary Roman imperial masterpiece, which was one of several dozen artefacts handed over to representatives from  Turkey on this past Monday at a ceremony in Manhattan.  But despite the significance of this restitution victory, the case also highlights a recurring tension in cultural heritage enforcement: prosecutors must balance the urgent need to secure the recovery of looted antiquities with the reality of heavy caseloads, limited resources and the evidentiary complexities of cross-border art crime.

Prosecutors must also weigh the public value of restitution against the practical challenges of pursuing a full criminal trial, challenges that often include jurisdictional disputes, decades-old evidence, and highly lawyered defendants. In some cases, as here, achieving restitution quickly may require accepting settlements rather than adjudicating culpability.

But in this instance, it is important to acknowledge all of the chain of evidence, not just the end agreement.  The arrest document sets out detailed allegations of knowing possession, deliberate concealment and even the strategic suggestion of a possible donation of the antiquity despite its clearly problematic origin. Those committed to cultural property protection should not lose sight of this. 

When settlements are reached between prosecutors and defense counsel, the public news announcements that follow often focus only on the terms of the final agreement, not on the evidentiary record that compelled it.  This is why it is essential to read publicly filed evidentiary documents and warrants in full rather than solely relying solely on news coverage, which tends to diplomatically report the end result,  but not always the underlying facts. 

Restitution in this case has been achieved, and all parties involved in the equation got something they wanted.  But the allegations remain a stark reminder of how looted antiquities can circulate through elite hands, sometimes shielded by the very legal mechanisms that facilitate their return, and of the difficult, often imperfect decisions prosecutors must make to ensure that stolen objects ultimately go home.

May 5, 2019

Sunday, May 05, 2019 - ,,,,,,,,,, No comments

Highlights from "The Art of Saving Art: Fragments of Italian History"


In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Carabinieri Command for Cultural Heritage on May 3, 1969, the Palazzo del Quirinale will play host to a unique exhibition, "The Art of Saving Art: Fragments of Italian History" from today through July 14, 2019.   

This exhibition serves to highlight the work of the Carabinieri Corps in protecting and restituting works of art, as well as to emphasize the foresight of Italian authorities in their establishment of the world's first cultural heritage crime-fighting unit, one year prior to the establishment of the famous 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transport of Ownership of Cultural Property.  


As the most active cultural heritage law enforcement division in the world, the Carabinieri TPC unit has grown from an initial team of 16 officers to approximately 270 officers today, working in fifteen field offices located in Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Cosenza, Florence, Genoa, Monza, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Rome, Turin, Udine, Venice, plus a subsection in Siracusa.  Divided into three working units the “Archaeological Section”, the “Antiquities Section”, and the “Contemporary Art and Anti-Counterfeiting Section” each of the triad are tasked with preventing criminal actions involving works of art.  

The exhibit, curated by Francesco Buranelli, is open every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 until 16:00.  On display are some of the most important and story-worthy recoveries made by the squad during the last half-century including: 

The Madonna of Senigallia, a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca which was stolen in February 1975 from the Ducal Palace in Urbino when thieves scaled the Palazzo's walls with the help of scaffolding and broke in through a window.   This artwork was later recovered after a year-long multi-country investigation which eventually lead the Carabinieri officers from Urbino to Rome and lastly to a hotel in Locarno, Switzerland.  As a result of their investigation, four individuals from Italy, Germany, and Switzerland were arrested and ultimately charged.

The Euphronios krater - This attic pottery masterpiece was trafficked out of Cerveteri and sold by Giacomo Medici and Robert Hecht Jr. to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for one million dollars in 1972.  Once defined by Thomas Hoving as “one of the ten greatest creations of the Western civilizations.” This  Greek vessel, which dates back to 515 B.C.E, was repatriated to Italy following a landmark agreement in February 2006 between the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Two years after the agreement was penned, the krater finally came home to Italy on January 15, 2008.

A Fourth-century BC sculptural group of two griffins attacking a fallen doe Pictured at left in a seized Polaroid photograph recovered by law enforcement authorities in a Geneva raid, this photograph depicts the now-disgraced antiquities dealer Giacomo Medici standing alongside this important antiquity.   Plundered from a tomb near Ascoli Satriano, in Foggia, and photographed, freshly plundered, in the boot of a tombarolo's car, the sculpture was purchased by Giacomo Medici.  He in turn sold the griffins on to fellow antiquities dealers known to launder illicit art Robin Symes and Christos Michaelides.  Symes and Michaelides then sold the artwork on to one of their many US clients, Maurice Tempelsman, who eventually negotiated a sale with the John P. Getty Museum.

Le Jardinier by Vincent Van Gogh, stolen on May 19, 1998, from Rome's prestigious Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna during an armed robbery just after the 10 pm closing time. This painting was recovered several months later, on July 5, 1998 at an apartment in the periphery of Rome.   Eight individuals were eventually charged and sentenced for their involvement in the museum's theft.

The Capitoline Triad, pictured at the top of this article, is a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion.  This famous triad was found by a well-known tombarolo from Anguillara Sabazia named Pietro Casasanta who heavily worked, along with a squad of paid subordinates, (paying off locals to keep quiet) in the area of L'Inviolata from 1970 onward.

Through informants, who were involved in the clandestine excavation, it was later determined that the Capitoline Triad was excavated in 1992 by Casasanta and two other accomplices, Moreno De Angelis and Carlo Alberto Chiozzi.  The trio had been digging in a pit near L'Inviolata alongside an ancient Roman wall belonging to either a temple or a patrician villa.  Casasanta then tried to shop the object to Edoardo Almagià, who passed on its purchase.

Casasanta then brokered a deal via the now deceased Lugano dealer Mario Bruno who was to then act as the intermediary dealer to a then-unnamed buyer who would eventually sell the object onward.  The piece was subsequently shipped to Switzerland in an anonymous van transported by two smugglers on Casasanta's payroll, Ermenegildo Foroni and Sergio Rossi.  Prior to that it had been hidden away in a warehouse for a furniture moving company called "Speedy International Transport".

Moreno De Angelis, unhappy with his cut, went to the Carabinieri of Castel di Guido and told the Station Commander about the find which is where Carabinieri Officer Roberto Lai's investigation got its starting point. De Angelis was later stopped near L'Inviolata with fragments in his car, that were matched with the triad. The carabinieri kept these details hidden during their investigation as they were concerned that the intermediaries might try and file down the sections of the triad if they knew there were known matching pieces of the triad which could tie them into the criminal conspiracy.

This video records a series of self-serving interviews given by Casasanta where he actually points out the location of the find spot.


This exhibition includes many other works of art not highlighted in this blog post for the sake of brevity, each with their own fabulous story to tell.  They include works of art stolen from churches, museums, archaeological areas, libraries, and archives.  So if you are in Rome this summer be sure to take some time to stop in.

By:  Lynda Albertson

April 30, 2020

Thursday, April 30, 2020 - ,,,, No comments

Remembering the long returned Orpheus Taming the Beasts Mosaic

Photograph from the Sanliurfa Prosecutor’s Office
which led to the restitution of the Orpheus Mosaic
The city of Şanlıurfa, modern-day Urfa, is situated in the Taurus Mountains of southern Anatolia, where the east-west highway from Zeugma on the Euphrates to where the Tigris meets with the north-south route from Somaysāṭ.  Known also as Edessa in history, the city is also referred to as Admi in Assyrian cuneiform tablets from the 7th century BCE,  Ōrhāy in Syriac sources, and as ar-Ruhā in Arabic texts.  Its location is important as the city stood along what was once the trade route upon which silk and spices flowed from China and India through to Asia Minor.

Upper Mesopotamia and Syria in the early Christian period,
showing Edessa within the Kingdom of Osroene
It was here, for a brief period, that the Kingdom of Osroene, a vassal state of the Parthian and Roman Empires, created their own original mosaics, some of which help us date them precisely because their makers tellingly embedded the year of their creation within their designs. These mosaics, which use the Seleucid calendar, were created from the end of the 2nd century through the middle of the 3rd century CE and have characteristics that make them identifiable to this specific region of modern-day Turkey.

Many of the mosaics which have been discovered in the area of Şanlıurfa originally lined the flooring of archaeological cave tombs in the city.  Some have been discovered during the building of current-day structures, as modern development encroached over the city's historic past.   Unfortunately, and despite their initial recording, a number of known Edessa mosaics were subsequently destroyed. Or, as is the case with this long particular tale, taken halfway around the globe illegally, far from the city and its ancient inhabitants, whose history illustrates once paid deep respect for their dead. 

For some of the lost mosaics, only photos, or drawings, and written academic references remain.  Others, like two fragments from the region's Tripod Mosaic, later surfaced on the Beirut antiquities market, taken there sometime after their initial looting.  

This is the story of just one of the lost Şanlıurfa mosaics. 

In the 1950s and 1960s Judah Benzion Segal, (otherwise known as J. B. Segal) visited and studied at Urfa. A widely respected scholar of Syriac and Aramaic languages, his explorations were funded by the University of London and the Pilgrim Trust Fund.  Before Segal began recording the epigraphic remains he found from ancient Edessa, only three of the four mosaic floors in Şanlıurfa had been documented.  One of those is the Aphtuha mosaic, which is now in the Istanbul Archeology Museums. Two of the others are missing.

In total Segal would go on to document a total of nine mosaic floors in the city's cave tombs dating from the first three centuries CE.  Several of these he visited during his second season in Urfa, in the summer of 1956, which he wrote about shortly thereafter.

The importance of these mosaics tells us much about the rich traditions of Edessa's westward-looking elite during the Osroene Kingdom (132 BCE - 242 CE).  They were a population whose funerary practices were sometimes known to intermingle with tales of Greco-Roman mythology, yet still proudly added touches of their local identity.  Strikingly, in paying homage to their loved ones, they laid their dead to rest with inscriptions in the local dialect, a clue from the past which helps us identify these works of art.

Orpheus Mosaic identified by Segal
One of the mosaics documented by Segal is pictured to the left, in a black and white photograph.  The face of the principal character has been torn away at some earlier point in history.  This mosaic depicts the Greek poet Orpheus, and while the entire mosaic is also known to have been lost, this antiquity is not the subject of this article and serves merely as our story's preamble.

By the 1970s the city of Şanlıurfa's mosaics had suffered greatly. Due in part to neglect, theft, or destruction, it was commonly stated that only a few of the ancient floor mosaics survived in their city of origin, including two preserved in private homes.  A third mosaic and fragments of a fourth had been relocated to Istanbul.  The bulk of the rest of the known mosaics had been destroyed or carted off.  This is the story of one of them.  Or to be clearer, this is as much of the story as I have been able to piece together from a variety of sources, and yet the saga leaves many unanswered questions.

We begin in 1998, when Turkish authorities have reported that they received an unexpected bit of intel into the looting of a previously unknown Odessa mosaic; a clue that wrote the first known passages of the plunder of "Ikinci Orpheus Mozaiği," or what some have called the "Second Orpheus Mosaic."

That year, a customer, perhaps one of the looters, dropped off film to be processed at a photo shop in the city of Şanlıurfa.  The patron then forgot to pick up the film/prints, or perhaps in hindsight, decided that it is wiser to abandon them.  One of the images captured by the eye of the camera detailed an Osroene Kingdom mosaic in situ, its decorative red ocher and black frieze bordering a central element that depicts a scene from the fateful love of Orpheus of Thrace.

The mosaic, like the earlier one documented by Segal, showed the son of Apollo, enchanting a group of ferocious animals with the magical sweetness of his lyre.  As the wild beasts gather around him mesmerized, his playing subdues their innate hostilities. In the upper left, near the head of our instrument strumming Greek hero, is a short, three-lined inscription.

The photo's content also gives a clue that something is afoot.  Resting atop the nearly-perfect mosaic is an incriminating can of Turkish adhesive, a thief's tool.  The metal canister is photographed sitting strategically over the single area of the mosaic's design where some of the tesserae are missing.   Perhaps the can was positioned there to allow the photographer to capture the remaining parts of the mosaic's design or after the looter(s) had set to work.

At some point in the process, the thieves would use the can of sticky fixative, to apply a thin coat over the top of the mosaic's tesserae.  Once applied, the next step would be to cover the entire artwork with cheesecloth or another thin fabric, to give the workmen a flexible, yet sturdy, adhesion to rip up the mosaic from its foundation.  After that, the mosaic would be rolled up and carried off, in the same way as a rolled-up Anatolian carpet.

Seeing the subject of the photo, and probably wanting no problems with the police, the shop owner turned the incriminating evidence to the local authorities.  At some point later, Turkish authorities would postulate that evidence pointed to the mosaic being taken from the Kalkan Neighborhood of Şanlıurfa.  Unfortunately, I have found no reference as to when, or how, this theory was arrived at.  Without further leads, the investigation apparently ground to a halt for a period of time.

The mosaic surfaces one year later, on the art market in the United States

On 9 December 1999, the mosaic appeared with Christie's Auction in New York, identified as Lot 388.  By then its beautiful bordering frieze had been cut away, leaving just the lyre-playing Greek bard surrounded by his animals.  In the span of just one year, the fixative used to uproot the mosaic from its findspot had been carefully eliminated and the mosaic polished up; made ready for purchase on the U.S. ancient art market. 

Christie's listed the mosaic in its 1999 antiquities sale catalog as a Roman Marble Mosaic, Eastern Mediterranean.  It dated the artwork as having been created in 204 A.D.  Not surprisingly for that period, the object's Lot description gave no provenance information whatsoever.


In addition to its striking lack of ownership history, Christie's gets an epic fail for Rand and Becker's translation of the mosaic's epigraphy, and for calculating its age.  At the time of the auction, in 1999, neither man listed as having contributed to the translation had completed their studies.  Michael Rand was studying Jewish liturgical piyyut composed mostly in Hebrew with some Aramaic and Adam Becker was working on a second MA, in Classics.  

The pair translated the small inscription in the field to the left of Orpheus incorrectly as:

"Son of Zagrios, the player, is playing."   

In actuality, we would learn later that this inscription gives the name of the creator and identifies his craft.  The lower inscription was likewise jumbled and incomplete, as was someone's interpretation of the Seleucid calendar.  This error put Christie's dating of the mosaic off by ten years.

Interestingly, the auction house's interpretation failed to document that the inscription was written in Estrangelo, the earliest form of Syriac, and the lingua franca of the peoples of ancient Edessa.  This alone would have given prospective buyers a stronger clue as to the mosaic's origins, something the translators themselves or the auction house either failed to comprehend, didn't value, or intentionally omitted when preparing the write-up for the ancient object.

Meanwhile, Turkish authorities state that they tried to block this sale at Christie's in 1999 on the grounds that the mosaic was illicit and had been removed illegally from the ancient city of Edessa, modern-day Şanlıurfa but I found no opensource evidence to back up this later press statement within searchable records in the public's domain.

In any case, with or without the objection of Turkey, the auction moved forward regardless, despite the auction house's faux pas in art history.  When the hammer dropped, the mosaic had sold for US$ 85,000. 

Given the title of "Orpheus Taming Wild Animals," the mosaic's acquirer was the Dallas Museum of Art. Listed in the DMA's February 2012 catalog with accession number DEACC.1999.305, it was purchased via gifting funds from of David T. Owsley and the Alconda-Owsley Foundation, along with two anonymous donors, in honor of Nancy B. Hamon.  Although Owsley presently lives in New York, he is a prominent collector of antiquities and long-time donor/patron of the DMA whose donations have on occasion been questioned.

From that point onward, the second Orpheus mosaic would remain quietly on public view without garnering much in the way of further attention until 2006, when its inscriptions are correctly translated and published by Professor John F. Healey of the University of Manchester.  It is in the Autumn of that year that the academic penned his article on "A New Syriac Mosaic Inscription" for the October issue of the Journal of Semitic Studies. 

In his article, Healey highlights the correct editio princeps of the inscription written in Estrangelo that Christie's translators had botched.  The first, to the left of Orpheus, gives the name of the creator and identifies his craft stating:

"Bargased, mosaic-maker, laid the mosaic"   

The second, lower inscription reads:

"In the month of Nisan in the year five hundred five I, Pāpā, son of Pāpā, made for myself this chamber of repose, for myself and for my children and for my heirs. Blessed be whoever sees and gives blessing." 

The Seleucid date of 505 translates to 194 CE.  The month of Nīsān translates to March/April.  This dated the mosaic a full ten years earlier than Christie's had recorded it, and more importantly, makes this artwork the earliest dated Syriac mosaic known.  While the article itself may pay-walled, limiting its access, the fully viewable abstract for Healy's paper clearly lists the location of the mosaic as the Dallas Museum of Art.  Given the artifact's newfound importance as the earliest known mosaic written in Estrangelo, it remains to be seen why Turkish authorities did not pick up on this evaluation or the mosaic's location, in order to begin direct overtures with the Dallas museum regarding the suspect object in their collection. Perhaps this was because the article was written in English, or perhaps it was the fact that texts on epigraphic remains were not on anyone's radar.  Whatever the case, this illustrates the disconnect that can occur between academia and law enforcement which when combined can be useful in identifying suspect objects in various known and published collections.

The next academic red flag to be waved was in Turkish. 

From 28 May-1 June 2007 Turkish archaeologist and Ahi Evran University lecturer Barış Salman attended a Research and Results meeting in Kocaeli, Turkey with his country's Culture and Tourism Ministry - General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums.  There Salman gave a presentation on his findings regarding the life and death of the peoples from the Abgar Royal Period, as interpreted through their mosaics from the Region of Osroene (Şanlıurfa).

In 2008 Salman followed up that meeting with a Turkish-language paper summarizing his presentation at the meeting which at last garnered some attention in Turkey. In his paper, Salman documented that only a small portion of the discovered mosaics from Şanliurfa had been properly recorded or brought to the city's museum or Istanbul over the course of the last century.  The scholar also noted that despite some archival photos and drawings documenting some of the mosaics identified from the 1950s onward, a number of these ancient mosaics had been lost or damaged.  Salman's paper also went on to emphasize that some of Turkey's mosaics had been secreted out of the country and taken abroad.

Salman cited the presence of Abgar Royal Period mosaics at the Louvre Museum in Paris, at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia, a Japanese Museum, and in private collections in France.  He also specifically mentioned the "Orpheus Taming Wild Animals" on public view at the Dallas Museum of Art, and cited Professor Healey's 2006 translation of the mosaic.

In 2008 Salman also wrote a second paper,  this time in English, again explaining his concerns about his country's mosaic losses.

It wasn't until American art Historian Maxwell L. Anderson replaced Pitman as the museum's Eugene McDermott Director in early 2012 that anyone at the Texas museum showed much of an interest in exploring the provenance of suspect acquisitions within their collection.

Ushering in a new era, Anderson started his reign by scrupulously emailing General Pasquale Muggeo, then heading up the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, and Maurizio Fiorill, the Avvocato Generale dello Stato for Italy on 27 January 2012 alerting them to the presence of three works sold to the museum in 1998 by antiquities dealer Edoardo Almagià.   Almagià was concerning as his name had already been attached to other tainted objects found in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art and Princeton University Art Museum.

The objects Anderson was concerned about were two Etruscan funerary shields from the 6th century BCE and a Volute krater by the Underworld Painter from the 4th century BCE which depicts the man-bull deity Acheloos.  U.S. Customs officials had raided Almagià's New York apartment, in 2006 confiscating photographs, documents, and archaeological material, and the director, perhaps to avoid the scandals that had already befallen other museums, was being proactive about contacting the Italian authorities regarding artifacts within the DMA collection which were proving to be concerning.

By March 2012 (the earliest date I have found via a Wayback Machine save), Dorothy King and the Lootbusters website had drawn attention, to the English-speaking public about the serious problem of mosaic thefts from Turkey, though not specifically the theft of this particular Orpheus mosaic.  King's blog and the Lootbusters' website both pointed to a page that the Turkish Ministry of Culture had published which documented a series of identified mosaics known to be missing from Şanlıurfa Province, including the Orpheus 1, without the face.  The original Turkish ministry link of these identified mosaics and their descriptions can be viewed here.

It is sometime in March that Dorothy King emailed Anderson voicing her concerns about the museum's Orpheus mosaic.*

If the Turkish authorities were, as was later stated, already working on the theft of the second Orpheus mosaic since 1998 when the looted photo was first turned in to the authorities, as well as in 2000 when the mosaic was auctioned at Christie's then why wasn't this mosaic included in this list of missing pieces when Turkey published its detailed alert?

In March of 2012, after Kings contact, Anderson wrote to the Embassy of Turkey stating he did so after having viewed the Turkish Ministry of Culture website with its series of mosaics known to have been illegally removed from Edessa after the 1950s. One of the objects in that list, the Orpheus Mosaic missing his face, which was discussed earlier, raised his concern. 

Speaking of the DMA's acquisition of its own Orpheus mosaic, in relation to the Republic of Turkey ministry web page, Anderson told the press:

"The mosaics included examples that were virtually identical to this one... and with the same Seriac inscription, specifically identifying the site from which the mosaic was obtained. And therefore, it raised questions for me."

Stylistically and iconographically, the DMA's Orpheus is similar to other Edessa mosaics. Specifically, the inscription is similar both in style and content to other Edessa mosaics as is the Estrangelo script which originates in Edessa. Other features typical of the area include the absence of depth to mosaics from that region's design, the light colors used, and the expression and facial features of the subjects. The date of the DMA's mosaic inscription also coincides precisely to the period of mosaic production in Edessa.

In explaining the chain of events with the Turkish authorities, Anderson would tellingly state in the New York Times:

"For whatever reason, they hadn’t found their way to the Christie’s catalog or to us."

Anderson's statement and the timing in which he gave them, again contradicts various Turkish press statements that the authorities in Turkey were aware of the auction at Christie's in 1999 or had paid heed to any of the academic articles written that identified where the mosaic ultimately landed.

By 7 June 2012 outrage over the thefts of Turkish mosaics had started to seriously simmer within the general public in Turkey.  It is around this point in time that Aktüel Archeology Magazine initiated a citizens' campaign to return the Edessa Mosaic located in the Dallas Museum of Art's collection.  In a series of articles and linking blog posts, readers are encouraged to complete an English-language petition to be addressed and sent to the Dallas museum administrators, likely not aware that a discussion with the Turkish authorities had been opened by the museum in the Spring.

Following Anderson's March embassy inquiry the Turkish authorities pulled all the pieces of the puzzle together and an investigation was (re)launched by the Şanlıurfa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office reviewing all of the collected evidence of the theft.  At this point, the previous evidence in the archives of the Attorney General's office, including the 1998 photograph taken by the smugglers before the mosaic's removal, became critical to the success of their investigation and ultimately to the objects forthcoming restitution.

The authorities in Turkey would then forward the museum director their copy of the incriminating photo and six experts, one of which was Barış Salman, weighed-in giving their expert opinions that the mosaic could only have come from within the territory of Turkey.  Faced with overwhelming and irrefutable proof that the mosaic had been looted, negotiations quickly got underway to deaccession the mosaic from the Dallas Museum of Art and to develop a memorandum of understanding covering bilateral cultural cooperation.  As part of this process, the agreement was carefully worded to say that the DMA had acquired the mosaic in good faith in accordance with the laws of the United States of America, and without knowledge of any issue as to its ownership or title.

On 3 December 2012, within this framework of mutual goodwill, the Director-General of Cultural Heritage and Museums for the Republic of Turkey O. Murat Suslu and DMA Director Anderson formally signed their memorandum of understanding in Dallas in the presence of Cemalettin Aydin, the consul general of Turkey in Houston.  With this MOU Turkey took legal possession of the mosaic, while also agreeing to future loan arrangements between the Texas museum and the Republic of Turkey.

On 6 December 2012 the mosaic was flown home to Turkey on Turkish Airlines and was soon exhibited within the Istanbul Archeology Museums Directorate. Later it was transferred, first to the Sanliurfa Museum, and in 2015, to its final home at the Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum.

All of this seems to conclude our story with a happily ever after ending, wrapped in a pretty red bow of cultural diplomacy.  But is it really?  

What about the loose ends?

Much time has been spent applauding the museum’s "unwavering ethical stance" and the proactive work of Maxwell Anderson, as well as the investigative work of law enforcement in the Republic of Turkey.  Some lesser attention, at least in academia has been paid, to the textual scholars whose work contributed to raising the preliminary alarm bells that a mosaic, located in Texas, was suspect.  

Nothing, however, has been said about: 

--WHO Christie's dealt with in the purchase of or consignment of this mosaic? 

--WHO conserved the mosaic after its illicit removal?  As every step of the process: from removing the gauze facing, to cleaning away any remaining soil or lingering adhesive, to transferring the mosaic to a supportive backing, or to consolidating any loosened tesserae, would have involved someone professionally trained in working with mosaics. 

--WHY hasn't this restorer/conservator been identified, or come forward of their own accord, either when initially approached by someone with on the rolled-up antiquity, or afterward when the object gained notoriety as having been looted from Turkey? 

--WHY did the Dallas Museum of Art purchase/accept via donation a mosaic advertised with no provenance? Or if they were privy to additional documentation from Christie's not available to the public at the time of the sale, why not disclose what information led them to believe this purchase was legitimate?  

and lastly...

--WHY did it take Turkey a decade to put two and two together?  Despite having a smoking gun photo, academics citing the mosaic's pedigree and location in both English and Turkish, it (still) took a public initiative activated to look into the theft and the DMA director's subsequent contact with the embassy to finally bring things together. 

To me, this restitution is not celebration-worthy, but more a textbook example of just how frayed, disjointed and inefficient, efforts to identify looted property can be.    This is not a criticism, it just serves as a reminder of just how difficult it is to chase these pieces and how collaboration can and does facilitate restitutions. 

I will close this lengthy article with another mosaic inscription found in cave tombs in this area of Turkey.  One which states that the dead are watched over by the eyes of the gods and aptly reads:  

"I, Gayyu, daughter of Baršuma, made this grave for myself. Whoever comes here shall not remove my bones. Whoever does it shall not have the other world (afterlife) and Maralahe curses him"

I can only hope the gods are truly watching.

By:  Lynda Albertson

-----------------
*01 May 2020 - This article has been revised for clarity and to include a notation posted by Dorothy King on 30 April 2020 that she had contacted the Dallas Museum of Art Director Anderson in 2012 about concerns regarding the Orpheus mosaic in the museum's collection.
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Colledge 1994: Colledge, M., "Some Remarks on the Edessa Funerary Mosaics",
La Mosaïque Gréco-Romaine IV, Paris, 1994. s. 189-197. Association Internationale pour l’Étude de la Mosaïque Antique.

Drijvers, H. J. W., Old Syriac (Edessean) Inscriptions, Leiden,1972.

Drijvers, H.J.W and Healey, J.F., The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene, Leiden-Boston-Köln, 1999.

Güler, S. and Çelik, B., "Edessa Mozaikleri, Şanlıurfa Uygarlığın Doğduğu Şehir", A.C. Kürkçüoğlu, M. Akalın, S. S. Kürkçüoğlu,  E. Güler (ed.) 2002, 182–189.

Healey, J. F., "A New Syriac Mosaic Inscription", Journal of Semitic Studies 51-2, 2006, s. 313-327.

Salman, B., "2005 Yılı Şanlıurfa ve Adana Müzeleri Mozaik Çalışması", 24. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı, C: 1, Çanakkale, 2006, s. 513-532.

Segal, J. B., "New Mosaics from Edessa", Archaeology 12.3, 1959, s. 150-157.

Segal J. B., "New Syriac Inscriptions from Edessa", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 22.1, 1959, s. 23-40.

Segal, J. B., Edessa (Urfa) Kutsal Şehir (Çev. A. Arslan), İstanbul, 2002.

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