The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is returning 44 ancient artworks to Italy, Egypt and Turkey after an inquiry.
The works have been repatriated after an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into the global trafficking of looted or stolen antiquities.
“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts returns any works in its collection that are discovered to be unlawfully held. The museum takes seriously, and responds to, all restitution claims for works in our collection,” said the museum’s director and CEO Alex Nyerges.
“This is not just our policy. It is the right thing to do. We fully support the decision to repatriate these 44 works of ancient art.”
Museum praised for cooperation
Per a press release, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts first received a summons on 1 May related to a group of 28 ancient objects. Based on the evidence supplied by the museum, another 29 works were added to the summons on 6 June.
The museum then submitted information on another four works, bringing the total number of works under investigation to 61.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office and Department of Homeland Security found that 44 of the 61 works under investigation were stolen or looted.
These include a bronze Etruscan warrior that was stolen from the Archaeological Civic Museum of Bologna in Italy in 1963. The other 43 works were looted from sites in Italy, Egypt and Turkey as part of an international criminal conspiracy involving antiquities traffickers, smugglers and art dealers.
Works returned to countries of origin
The remaining 17 works of art are no longer under investigation and remain in the museum’s permanent collection.
“The clear and compelling evidence presented to [the museum] left no doubt that the museum does not hold clear title for these 44 works of ancient art,” said the museum’s chief curator and deputy director for art and education, Michael R. Taylor.
“Stolen or looted art has no place in our galleries or collection, so we are delighted to return these works to their countries of origin.”
Since 2004, the museum has repatriated six other works of art — three European paintings that were stolen during the Nazi era and three works that were returned to the Tlingit tribe.
Image credit: Sandra Sellars © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
