An ancient Roman statue believed to represent the daughter of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and valued at $5 million has been seized by New York officials as part of a nationwide investigation into antiquities looted from what is now Turkey.
The Worcester Museum of Art in Massachusetts has relinquished the “Portrait of a Lady (A Daughter of Marcus Aurelius?)” sculpture, which it acquired in 1966, to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, “after receiving new information about the ownership history of the object. ”said a press release from the museum Friday.
The statue is the second artifact from about AD 200 that the bureau’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has taken from an out-of-state museum in recent months. In mid-August, the unit seized a statue believed to represent Marcus Aurelius himself, worth $20 million, from the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio.
A spokesman for the agency said on Saturday that the recovery of both sculptures was part of “an active criminal investigation into a smuggling network involving antiquities looted from Turkey and trafficked through Manhattan.”
The Worcester museum said it had little information about the bronze female bust at the time it was acquired, and that while it had “conducted its own research at the time, it is now acquiring items with greater diligence.”
The museum said it had not received any claims related to the item before it received a seizure order in June. “Based on the new evidence provided,” the museum said, it had “determined that the bronze was likely stolen and illegally imported,” and had thus “carried out the process of the safe transfer of the object.”
“We are very grateful for the new information we have received,” said Matthias Waschek, director of the Worcester Art Museum. “The ethical standards that apply to museums have changed significantly since the 1960s, and the museum strives to manage its collection in accordance with modern ethical standards.”
The museum said different sculptors likely created the bust’s head and draped shoulders, and the objects “were linked together in ancient times.” It read: “The woman’s heavily guarded gaze betrays a contemplative personality as aloof as the emperors themselves.”
The Cleveland bronze statue believed to represent the Roman ruler and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, which, while headless, stands 6 feet tall, will be shipped to New York this month by art movers, the district attorney’s office said.
A spokesperson for the Cleveland museum said Thursday that “because this issue is the subject of a lawsuit in New York, the museum is unable to comment at this time.” The museum said it did not know where the statue’s head was located.
The Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art in the Bronx also donated a Turkish item to the Antiquities Trafficking Unit. Pursuant to a seizure order issued in March, the unit removed the “Young Caracalla Head,” another third-century bronze statue, and valued it at $750,000. Caracalla was a Roman emperor of the period known for his bloodthirsty rule.
The Fordham Museum, which acquired his bronze head in 2007, said it gave up the object as soon as a warrant was issued. “Of course we fully cooperated with the Public Prosecution Service,” said a spokesperson for the university on Saturday.
Turkish officials believe all three seized items are from southwestern Turkey and originated when the region was known as Anatolia or Asia Minor and was under the rule of the Roman Empire.
