Three ancient artworks that for years had been part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are now thought to have been looted were returned on Monday to the Republic of Iraq, the Met and the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in statements.
The artworks were recovered following criminal investigations into looted art, including one into the British antiquities dealer Robin Symes, the district attorney’s office said. Mr. Symes, who died in 2023, was long suspected by investigators to have been a trafficker.
The artifacts were returned in an official ceremony at the district attorney’s office in Lower Manhattan that was attended by Met officials and representatives from Iraq.
“Through the Museum’s cooperation with the Manhattan DA’s office, and as a result of its investigation into Robin Symes, the museum recently received new information that made it clear that the works should be repatriated, resulting in a constructive resolution,” the Met said in a statement.
The artifacts include a Sumerian vessel made of gypsum alabaster dating to around 2600 to 2500 B.C., which passed through Symes’s hands and was given to the museum in 1989 by a private collection; and two Babylonian ceramic sculptures, a head of a male and a head of a female, dating to around 2000 to 1600 B.C.
The head of a male was sold by Symes to the Met in 1972; the head of a female was a gift from the same private collection in 1989. All three were seized by the district attorney’s antiquities trafficking unit earlier this year.
The two heads are thought to be from Isin, an ancient Mesopotamian archaeological site in Iraq. When the vessel was initially offered to the Met, in 1956, a Swiss dealer said it had been found near the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, the district attorney’s office said.
The district attorney’s office said the investigation into Symes by its antiquities trafficking unit had led to the seizure of 135 antiquities that it said had been trafficked by Symes into and through Manhattan. The investigators calculated the value of the artifacts at $58 million.
“We continue to recover and return antiquities that were trafficked by Robin Symes,” the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg Jr., said in a statement. “That is a testament to the hard work of attorneys, analysts and investigators who are committed to undoing the significant damage traffickers have caused to our worldwide cultural heritage.”
In a statement, H.E. Nazar Al Khirullah, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States, said: “We deeply value our enduring partnership with key American institutions — foremost among them, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the DA’s Office, whose leadership has been instrumental in the recovery of Iraq’s looted heritage. We also appreciate our strong and ongoing partnership with The Met, whose commitment to cultural preservation complements our shared mission to safeguard the world’s antiquities.”
Max Hollein, the Met’s director, said in a statement: “The Met is committed to the responsible collecting of art and the shared stewardship of the world’s cultural heritage and has made significant investments in accelerating the proactive research of our collection.”
Graham Bowley is an investigative reporter covering the world of culture for The Times.
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