{"id":1922,"date":"2023-07-21T13:14:24","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T05:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2023-07-21T13:14:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T05:14:24","slug":"manhattan-district-attorney-returns-two-antiquities-worth-1-26-m-to-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/manhattan-district-attorney-returns-two-antiquities-worth-1-26-m-to-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan District Attorney Returns Two Antiquities Worth $1.26 M to Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Manhattan District Attorney<\/a>\u2019s office announced Friday it had returned two antiquities worth $1.26 million to Libya that had previoulsy been smuggled and held by the British art dealer\u00a0Robin Symes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to a press release,\u00a0Marble Face of a Ptolemaic Queen<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Female Bust<\/em>\u00a0were looted from the ancient city of Cyrene and acquired by Symes for his personal collection. They were stored in a storage unit in New York for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

Female Bust<\/em>\u00a0would have been part of an important funerary relief that decorated Cyrene\u2019s ancient cemetery, known as a necropolis. Recently, archaeologists in Libya believe they have found what appears to be the torso of\u00a0Female Bust<\/em>\u00a0still intact in its original tomb.<\/p>\n

\u201cRampant looting\u201d at the ancient city of Cyrene during the late 1980s and 1990s led to the two Libyan antiquities first appearing on the international art market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shameful that these beautiful pieces were stored away for decades by a convicted trafficker,\u201d District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. \u201cCyrene has faced significant looting, but thanks to the work of our Antiquities Trafficking Unit and partners at Homeland Security, we have now returned several pieces from this ancient city back to the people of Libya. We continue to have ongoing investigations into stolen Libyan artifacts and look forward to more repatriation ceremonies in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the fourth repatriation involving looted antiquities connected to Symes from the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office in the last five months.<\/p>\n

In February, the DA\u2019s office returned a marble head of the emperor Hadrian dating back to 200 CE. It had been smuggled out of Italy and laundered by Symes with false-provenance information before it was sold in New York in 1992.<\/p>\n

In April, an alabaster female figure dating to 2nd century BCE was\u00a0repatriated to Yemen<\/a>. Symes had sold it to Metropolitan Museum of Art trustee Shelby White, who was investigated by the DA\u2019s office for the large number of looted items in her personal collection.<\/p>\n

In May, the DA\u2019s office repatriated a Mesopotamian limestone elephant to Iraq. It had been hidden in a storage unit \u201csince at least 1999\u201d that belonged to Symes.<\/p>\n

In addition to those investigations, Greece also announced in May that its Ministry of Culture would recover 351 looted items that were previously in the possession of Symes\u2019 liquidated company after\u00a0a 17-year legal battle<\/a>. The Italian Ministry of Culture held a press conference in June to display\u00a0750 items it had also recovered from Symes\u2018 liquidated company,\u00a0estimated to be worth $12.9 million.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office announced Friday it had returned two antiquities worth $1.26 million to Libya that had previoulsy been smuggled and held by the British art dealer\u00a0Robin Symes. According to a press release,\u00a0Marble Face of a Ptolemaic Queen\u00a0and\u00a0Female Bust\u00a0were looted from the ancient city of Cyrene and acquired by Symes for his personal collection. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nManhattan District Attorney Returns Two Antiquities Worth $1.26 M to Libya - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The\u00a0Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office announced Friday it had returned two antiquities worth $1.26 million to Libya that had previoulsy been smuggled and held by the British art dealer\u00a0Robin Symes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/manhattan-district-attorney-returns-two-antiquities-worth-1-26-m-to-libya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manhattan District Attorney Returns Two Antiquities Worth $1.26 M to Libya - 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