Returns to Italy from the San Antonio Museum of Art

Source: San Antonio Museum of Art

A series of deaccessions has been made in September 2025 by the San Antonio Museum of Art. They consist of mostly South Italian pots and one Etruscan terracotta:

• South Italian oinochoe (inv. 97.8). Sold by Peter Sharrer.
• Gnathian hydria (inv. 86.119.3.a–b). Surfaced at Sotheby's (London) December 1982; sold by Atlantis Antiquities.
• Two Apulian epichyses (inv. 88.11.1.a–b). Surfaced at Sotheby's (London) December 1987.
• Paestan bell-krater (inv. 2005.1.72). Surfaced at Sotheby's (London) December 1986; Charles Ede Ltd.
• Paestan fishplate (inv. 87.17). Galerie Hydra, Geneva; Sotheby's (London) December 1986; Charles Ede Ltd.
• Etruscan terracotta figure of a woman (inv. 88.11.2). Surfaced at Sotheby's (London) December 1987.

Other items were deaccessioned in February 2021, and January 2022. 

The way that many of these pieces surfaced through Sotheby's (London) is significant. (For others from these same auctions see here.) Galerie Hydra is associated with material linked to Giacomo Medici (see here).

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Another statue associated with Bubon returns to Türkiye

The Manhattan DA has announced that a statue that has resided in the collection of Aaron Mendelsohn has been returned to Türkiye (Press Release).

The nature of the return is described:

The D.A.’s Office has been investigating looted Bubon antiquities trafficked into and through New York County since 2022. The ongoing investigation into Bubon has led to the seizure of 16 antiquities from Bubon, 15 of which have already been repatriated, collectively valued at almost $80 million. 

In this ceremony we will be returning an over-life-sized bronze statue of a “Nude Emperor” that was looted from Bubon, trafficked through Manhattan, and purchased by collector Aaron Mendelsohn. Pursuant to a deferred prosecution agreement, Mendelsohn has agreed to surrender the statue of the Nude Emperor so that the D.A.’s Office can repatriate it to the people of Türkiye. Mendelsohn’s federal lawsuit challenging the Office’s investigation of the statue was also dismissed. 

“The looting into ancient sites like Bubon were extensive, and I am pleased that our investigation has yielded such significant results. I thank the work of our prosecutors and analysts for their dedication to uncovering these trafficking networks that target ancient sites rich with cultural heritage,” said District Attorney Bragg. 

“It takes real courage to challenge what is unjust. Today, the dedicated Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the DA’s Office is repatriating artifacts stolen from the Turkish people decades ago. The strong partnership we have built and sustained with determination has carried our national efforts onto the international stage. These restitutions not only reunite the heroes of these cases, but also send a clear message to the world: do not buy cultural property removed illegally from its country of origin. This is how a single return becomes a powerful tool against illicit excavations—and why this work matters more than ever,” said Gökhan Yazgı, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye. 

In the 1960s, individuals from a village near Bubon began plundering a Sebasteion, an ancient shrine with monumental bronze statues of Roman emperors and selling those looted antiquities to smugglers based in the coastal Turkish city of Izmir. Working with Switzerland-based trafficker George Zakos and New York-and-Paris-based trafficker Robert Hecht, they unlawfully removed the looted antiquities from Türkiye, transporting them to Switzerland or the United Kingdom, and then onward to the United States or other European destinations. Once the statues were in the United States, New York-based dealers such as Jerome Eisenberg’s Royal-Athena Galleries and the Merrin Gallery funneled the stolen Bubon bronzes into museum exhibitions and academic publications thereby laundering the pieces with newly crafted provenance. As the Bubon pieces graced the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Worcester Museum of Art, and the Fordham Museum of Art, the reputational value of the institutions that displayed the Bubon pieces increased and the financial value of the statues grew.

Other bronzes associated with Bubon are mentioned here. We look forward to his major group of bronze sculptures being displayed in the same space.

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Düver fragments returned to Türkiye from Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Source: VMFA

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has announced that it has deaccessioned 41 fragments of the Düver frieze that it acquired in the 1970s (Press Release). Details of the acquisition were provided:

In 1978, VMFA purchased 34 terracotta reliefs from Summa Galleries in Beverly Hills, California, and six additional reliefs were received as gifts from Chicago-based antiquities dealer Harlan J. Berk. The following year, Summa Galleries gave another relief to VMFA, resulting in 41 polychrome terracotta relief fragments from the temple being added to the museum’s collection.

A fragment from a separate New York private collection had been returned in 2022. 48 fragments of the frieze had been returned from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 2024.

Other museums with parts of the frieze will no doubt be contacting the authorities in Türkiye.

These returns show that the 1970 UNESCO Convention is no longer the benchmark for making the case for repatriations. 

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Head of Demosthenes returns to Türkiye

Head of Demosthenes
Source: New York MMA

Back in November I noted that New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art had returned a marble portrait of Demosthenes to Türkiye. The head was acquired in 2012 (inv. 2012.479.9). The stated collecting history (sometimes known as "provenance") is as follows:

Mussienko Family Collection, Maryland, 1973. Sold by Fortuna Fine Arts, New York, to Ariadne Gallery, New York, in 1987. Sold by the Ariadne Gallery to Morris Pinto, New York, before December, 1992. Consigned by Morris Pinto to Christie’s New York, December 15, 1992, lot 14, passed in. Consigned by Morris Pinto to the Acanthus Gallery, New York. Acquired by Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer from the Acanthus Gallery, New York, before 1998. Given by Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2012.

The head was published in:

Zanker, P. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pp. 36-38, no. 9.

The portrait now features in a press release from the Manhattan DA:

This sculpture originated in Türkiye near the modern city of Izmir and first appeared on the art market in the possession of the New York-based Ariadne Galleries, before passing through the hands of several private collectors until it was donated to the Met in 2012. Ariadne Galleries allegedly falsely claimed that it had bought the Marble Head from Fortuna Fine Arts—claiming to have done so two years before Fortuna Fine Arts even existed. Ariadne and Fortuna, which is currently under indictment in federal court for fraud, also allegedly falsely claimed that the Marble Head had previously been in the collection of Boris Mussienko—a name Fortuna and other galleries allegedly frequently used to create false provenance. Law enforcement seized the Marble Head from the Met in 2025.

For clarification the head was seized in September 2025. For other material associated with "Mussienko" see here.

Again this is a reminder of the need to authenticate the collecting histories before making acquisitions.

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Two lots withdrawn from Bonham's sale

Becchina Archive

Source: Christos Tsirogiannis.

Dr Christos Tsirogiannis has identified two lots that were due to be auctioned at next week's sale of antiquities at Bonham's (4 December 2025). Both feature in the Becchina archive. They have now been withdrawn (along with lot 126).

Lot 15 is a South Italian terracotta figure. It was said to have been in a private collection in France in 1979 before entering the Nina Borowski collection in the 1990s. It is reported to be part of unnamed private collection in Switzerland. The entry in the Palladion Antike Kunst records suggest that it was part of an unnamed Swiss private collection.

Lot 123 is an Attic red-figured pelike showing an Eros on horseback currently in the Lloyd and Jeanne Raport collection. Tsirogiannis informs me that the pelike was consigned by Becchina to Sotheby's in London on 17 May 1983 (lot 264).

Did the staff at Bonham's attempt to authenticate the information relating to the collecting histories (so-called "provenance") prior to the sale? 

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An Analysis of the Stern Collection of Cycladicising Art

The loan exhibition of the Leonard N. Stern collection of Cycladicising art at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has been drawing much attention. Our detailed analysis has just been published by Mediterranean Archaeology.

Gill, D. W. J., and C. Tsirogiannis. 2025. "The Stern Collection of Cycladic Figures and the Metropolitan Museum of Art." MeditArch 38: 1–24.

The structure of the article is as follows:

I. Introduction 

II. The Formation of the Stern Collection 

III. Cycladic Figures in Public Exhibitions and Key Publications 

IV. From Cycladic Master to Cycladic Sculptor 

V. The Sources of Cycladic Figures Known Before 1970 

VI. Potentially Looted Material 

VII. Potential Forgeries 

VIII. The Rest of the Cycladic Collection 

IX. Repatriation or Loans: The Political Dimension 

X. Conclusion

Two other studies of the Stern collection have appeared:

Gill, D. W. J. 2025. "Artwashing the Cyclades: The Leonard N. Stern Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." BMCR.

Gill, D. W. J. 2025. "Leonard Stern Collection of Cycladic Antiquities". Museum of Looted Art.

There is a shorter discussion of the Stern collection in this study of Cycladic figures:

Tsirogiannis, C., D. W. J. Gill, and C. Chippindale. 2025. "A Corrupt Cycladic Corpus of Marble Figures." Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies 13: 203–33. [DOI]

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Hecht fragment returns to Italy

Source: MMA

In January 2024 New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art deaccessioned the foot of an Attic black-figured band cup related to the Lysippides painter (inv. 2017.18; BAPD 340463). The fragment surfaced with Hesperia Arts in Philadelphia in 1957 and was discussed by Sir John Beazley in 1961. It then passed into the hands of Münzen und Medaillen in Basel (1963) and was then sold to the Toledo Museum of Art (inv. 63.25). It featured in the first fascicule of the CVA (1976). The fragment was deacessioned and sold through Christie's, New York (October 25, 2016, lot 15).

A press release (February 18, 2025) from the Manhattan DA informs us:

The Kylix was found and illegally excavated from the Etruscan archaeological site of Vulci in the 1960s before it was smuggled out of Italy by the New York and Paris-based dealer Robert Hecht.

In fact, the cup must have been removed in the 1950s (or earlier). But what is the basis of this new evidence?

More importantly, what does it means for museums that acquired items that passed through Hesperia Arts in the 1950s and 1960s? Eight items appear in the Beazley Archive Pottery Database, including a clutch formerly in the collection of J.V. Noble. There are even more pieces listed under "Philadelphia market": a quick check on some of the pieces quickly established a named link with Robert Hecht or Hesperia Arts. And I noted another black-figured amphora that certainly passed through Hesperia Arts but that information was not recorded on BAPD. 

Is Italy now pursuing items that surfaced well before the 1970 UNESCO Convention? Will this result in a further set of returns?

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