Coincidentally, just as I was
about to publish my post on the Palestinian Stone Masks looted by locals from
the Judean mountains and deserts, and sold on to Michael Steinhardt, news broke
of his prosecution for art theft by the New York district attorney’s office,
(Anon 2021a): “Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. announced on Monday
that Michael Steinhardt, one of the world’s largest ancient art collectors, has
surrendered 180 stolen antiquities valued at $70 million and received a
first-of-its-kind lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities, following the
resolution of a multi-year, multi-national investigation into his criminal
conduct. The seized pieces were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11
countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable
provenance prior to appearing on the international art market, according to the
Statement of Facts summarizing the investigation.”
I give here the details of that
Statement of Facts by the New York District Attorney’s Office (ibid.) “For
decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered
artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of
the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought
across the globe,” said District Attorney Vance. “His pursuit of ‘new’
additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as
reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses,
money launderers, and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection.
Even though Steinhardt’s
decades-long indifference to the rights of peoples to their own sacred
treasures is appalling, the interests of justice prior to indictment and trial
favour a resolution that ensures that a substantial portion of the damage to
world cultural heritage will be undone, once and for all. Accordingly, this
agreement guarantees that 180 pieces will be returned expeditiously to their
rightful owners in 11 countries rather than be held as evidence for the years
necessary to complete the grand-jury indictment, trial, potential conviction,
and sentence.
This resolution also enables my
Office to shield the identity of the many witnesses here and abroad whose names
would be released at any trial, to protect the integrity of parallel
investigations in each of the 11 countries with whom we are conducting joint
investigations, and to avoid over-burdening resource-scarce nations who would
be called upon to provide witnesses in any grand jury or trial. Finally, this
agreement establishes that Steinhardt will be subject to an unprecedented
lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities.
I want to thank our Antiquities
Trafficking Unit, our partners at Homeland Security Investigations, and the
international law-enforcement authorities who collaborated with us on this case
for their remarkable efforts in this extraordinarily complex and time-consuming
investigation.
Steinhardt viewed these precious
artifacts as simple commodities – things to collect and own. He failed to
respect that these treasures represent the heritage of cultures around the
world from which these items were looted, often during times of strife and
unrest,” said HSI New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel. “The
outstanding collaboration between the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and
Homeland Security Investigations revealed the breadth of Steinhardt’s
plundering and this collaborative effort has yielded the remarkable results
announced today.”
According to documents filed in
court, the criminal investigation into Steinhardt began in February 2017. While
investigating the Bull’s Head stolen from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil
War, the D.A.’s Office determined Steinhardt had purchased the
multi-million-dollar statue then subsequently loaned it to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Months after seizing the piece, the D.A.’s Office announced the
formation of its Antiquities Trafficking Unit with the repatriation of the
Bull’s Head and the Calf Bearer, a second multi-million-dollar marble statute
seized from Steinhardt, to the Lebanese Republic in December 2017.
In the process of uncovering the
Lebanese statues, the D.A.’s Office learned that Steinhardt possessed
additional looted antiquities at his apartment and office, and, soon after,
initiated a grand jury criminal investigation into his acquisition, possession,
and sale of more than 1,000 antiquities since at least 1987. As part of this
inquiry into criminal conduct by Steinhardt, the D.A.’s Office executed 17
judicially-ordered search warrants and conducted joint investigations with
law-enforcement authorities in 11 countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq,
Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Turkey.”
The same source (Anon 2021a),
goes on “Of Steinhardt’s acquisitions, the D.A.’s Office developed compelling
evidence that 180 were stolen from their country of origin. In addition to
their universal lack of provenance, the pieces exhibited numerous other
evidentiary indicators of looting. Prior to Steinhardt’s purchase, 171 of the
180 seized antiquities first surfaced in the possession of individuals who
law-enforcement authorities later determined to be antiquities traffickers—some
of whom have been convicted of antiquities trafficking; 101 first appeared
dirty (or unrestored) in photographs; and 100 appeared covered in dirt or
encrustations prior to Steinhardt’s purchase. Many of the seized antiquities
were trafficked following civil unrest or looting.
The same source (Anon 2021a)
gives a brief list of some of the pieces surrendered in this agreement. I have
added quite a number to their list, using the information extracted from Vance
(2021a and b).
The Stag’s Head Rhyton,
Depicts a finely wrought stag’s
head in the form of a ceremonial vessel for libations, purchased from The
Merrin Gallery for $2.6 million in November 1991. The item, which dates to 400
B.C.E., first appeared without provenance on the international art market after
rampant looting in Milas, Turkey. In March 1993, Steinhardt loaned the Stag’s
Head Rhyton to the Met, where it remained until the D.A.’s Office applied for
and received a warrant to seize it. Today, the Stag’s Head Rhyton is valued at
$3.5 million.
The Stag’s Head Rhyton or
ceremonial drinking cup. Image credits Anon (2021b) and Anon (2021c).
The Larnax
The Larnax. Picture credit: Anon
(2021c).
The Larnax, a small chest for human remains, appears broken into
several large fragments in a photograph recovered from Steinhardt’s files. See
Exhibit 53A. The Larnax features painted aquatic figures and was crafted in the
ancient workshops at Rethymnon in eastern Crete between 1400-1200 B.C.E. Over
the last twenty years, Rethymnon has been subjected to widespread looting.
The Larnax first surfaced on the international art market immediately
after these reports of looting on April 12, 2014, when Flavio Bertolin (b.
1965) a Munich-based restorer began reconstructing the Larnax from fragments.
This is another example of the looting practice of “orphans” referred to
earlier in which looters and smugglers often intentionally break large statues
into smaller pieces to ease transport and avoid detection by customs and other
law enforcement officials. The reconstruction work appears to have been
completed by Bertolin on March 16, 2016. On April 22, 2016, Ralf Kotalla
performed a Thermoluminescence test (TL)—a procedure done to evaluate the
authenticity of an antiquity—in Haigerloch, Germany, concluding that the Larnax
was Minoan and 3300 years old (+/-20%). Kotalla often conducted the same
testing on looted antiquities for convicted antiquities-trafficker Giovanni
Franco
Becchina.
On October 15, 2016, Steinhardt paid Seychelles-based FAM Services
(via SATABANK as Alexander instructed) $575,000 for the Larnax. On May 31,
2017, during the investigation of the looted Calf Bearer that was ultimately
seized and returned to Lebanon, Steinhardt was complaining to Special Agent
John Paul Labbat about a subpoena from this
Office that was being served requesting provenance documentation.
Scoffing at the subpoena, Steinhardt pointed to the Larnax, saying, “you see
this piece? There’s no provenance for it. If I see a piece and I like it, then
I buy it.” See Exhibit 53B for the most recent photograph of the Larnax. No
verifiable provenance for the Larnax prior to the 2016 sale from Alexander to
Steinhardt has ever been identified. Vance (2021b).
The Ercolano Fresco
The Ercolano Fresco purchased
from convicted antiquities trafficker Robert Hecht and his antiquities restorer
Harry Bürki with no prior provenance for $650,000 in November 1995. Depicting
an infant Hercules strangling a snake sent by Hera to slay him, the Ercolano
Fresco dates to 50 C.E. and was looted in 1995 from a Roman villa in the ruins
of Herculaneum, located near modern Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. It
first appeared on the international art market on November 10, 1995 when
Hecht’s business partner wrote Steinhardt regarding a “crate being delivered to
you soon” with the artifact inside. Today, the Ercolano Fresco is valued at $1
million.
Ercolano
(Herculanium) Fresco. Adapted from Mashburg (2021).
Depicting an infant Hercules
strangling a snake sent by Hera to slay him, the Ercolano Fresco dates to 50
C.E. and was looted in 1995 from a Roman Villa in “Oliva dei Monaci” in Herculaneum,
located near modern Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Photographs
recovered by Italian law-enforcement authorities depict the precise find spot
for the Ercolano Fresco. On the photographs themselves, the looters made
hand-written notes indicating the location of the looting pit relative to the
sea and to Mount Vesuvius. Italian law-enforcement authorities had also
received a letter containing eleven different photographs of the Ercolano
Fresco and of a second looted fresco. The letter, translated from Italian to
English, noted:
[t]hese pictures concern somebody you know,
Pasquale, also known as the fat guy, who died some time ago and the pictures
are related to the frescos that the professor from Taranto bought from
Pasquale, now you have to find the frescos where they are located, in the
United States of America.
The “fat guy” in the letter was
Pasquale Camera, and the “professor from Taranto” is the well-known appellation
for the prolific trafficker Raffaele Monticelli. Both the photographs and the
letter were sent anonymously to Italian law-enforcement authorities in the
port-city of Bari by tombaroli angered at being cheated out of their cut of the
sale of the looted Ercolano Fresco.
The information proved accurate.
Monticelli had purchased the Ercolano Fresco from Camera for approximately
$120,000 in cash. Monticelli then smuggled the Ercolano Fresco out of Italy and
sold it to Robert Hecht for approximately $240,000 in cash. The Ercolano Fresco
first surfaced on the international art market on November 10, 1995, when
Jasper Gaunt (Hecht’s business partner) wrote to Steinhardt regarding a “crate
being delivered to you soon” containing the restored Ercolano Fresco. On
November 22, 1995, Harry Bürki sent Steinhardt an invoice for $650,000 with no
prior provenance. The invoice listed the same two frescoes that the anonymous
tombaroli later sent to the Italian authorities. The first fresco was described
as “One roman painting, c.a. 50 A.D.” with a hand-written note identifying it
as “Herakles Strangling the Serpent,” i.e., the Ercolano Fresco. The second
fresco on the invoice was described as “also Roman, ca. 50 A.D. ca. 43 cm wide
and 107 cm high wich (sic) will be shipped soon.” A handwritten note on the
invoice indicated that Steinhardt did not purchase this second fresco.
According to a letter dated
February 17, 1999, from Harry Bürki to Steinhardt, recovered from Steinhardt’s
files, Bürki noted:
I was surprised to learn that the Italian
government had suggested that the wall-painting had been stolen from
Herculaneum in May 1995.
This painting has been in my family for
twentyfive (sic) years or so, and we acquired it from a Bulgarian medical
doctor.
As discussed previously, Bürki
often created fake provenance for Hecht by attributing works to his family’s
“collection,” as he did here, falsely claiming on his invoice to Steinhardt
that the Ercolano Fresco was “exported legally from [its] country of
origin.” No verifiable provenance for
the Ercolano Fresco prior to the 1995 sale from Bürki/Hecht to Steinhardt has
ever been identified. Vance (2021b).
Three Palestinian Death Masks
Three Death Masks purchased from known
antiquities trafficker Gil Chaya with no provenance whatsoever for $400,000 in
October 2007, less than a year after they surfaced on the international art
market. The Death Masks (circa 6000 to 7000 B.C.E.) were crafted from stone and
originated in the foothills of the Judean mountains, most likely in the
Shephelah in Israel. They appear soil-encrusted and covered in dirt in photographs
recovered by Israeli law-enforcement authorities. Today, the Death Masks are
valued at $650,000.
These turned out to be the
Grinning, Wondering and Chief’s Masks. (details derived from a visual
inspection of the images provided in Vance 2021a). See previous post (here) for
full-sized photographs of these Neolithic Stone Masks.
Three Judean (Occupied Palestinian
territories), Neolithic Stone Masks, known as the Grinning, Wondering and
Chief’s masks respectively. Picture credit: adapted from Hershman (2014).
Five Neolithic Stone Masks
Also from Palestine and known
respectively as the Watching, Expressive, Large, Miniature, and Solid Masks. Vance
(2021b): “Carved from limestone, the five Neolithic Masks depicting stylized
human heads were accessioned by Steinhardt under A1991.23a, b, d, e, & f
and date to circa 7000 B.C.E.”
Discovered as a single assemblage of finds, the Neolithic Masks
originated from the Judean Desert. The Judean Desert lies in Israel and the
West Bank, east of Jerusalem and descending to the Dead Sea. Following the
discovery of the Neolithic Masks, noted trafficker Abu Ali Tawil smuggled them
from their find spot to two different locations: two—A1991.23b and e — went to
Brown’s gallery (at 10 King David Street in Jerusalem, Israel) and three —
A1991.23a, d, and f — went to al-Rehani. As noted previously, Abu Ali Tawil not
only found the Dead Sea Scrolls, but operated as a smuggler in the West Bank
and was caught by Israeli authorities supplying metal detectors to looters on
the West Bank. Initially, Brown examined the two masks — A1991.23b and e — in
Israel. Then, he sent the two masks to al-Rehani as well. Al-Rehani, in turn,
smuggled all five Neolithic Masks to Zurich. From Zurich, Brown shipped the
Neolithic Masks to the United States.
The Neolithic Masks first surfaced on the
international art market by February 1, 1991, when Steinhardt purchased them
from Brown with no prior provenance for an unknown price. In a letter from
Brown recovered from Steinhardt’s files, Brown writes, “on the following page
you will find the descriptions of your recent acquisitions [including the
subject Neolithic Masks] from Mr. [al-Rehani] of Jordan.” A handwritten note
recovered from Steinhardt’s records for the Neolithic Masks contains the name,
“Abuwali Twill.” To date, no invoice or proof of payment for any of the five
Neolithic Masks has ever been recovered from Steinhardt’s records, and a note
in Steinhardt’s records indicates “no record of purchase.” Vance (2021b). Again,
see my previous post (here) for full-sized photographs of these Neolithic Stone
Masks.
The other five, looted Palestinian, Neolithic Stone Masks recovered
from Steinhardt. L-R Watching, Large, Expressive, Solid and Miniature Masks.
Picture credit: adapted from Hershman (2014).
Proto-Corinthian Owl and Duck
Feuerherd (2018): “Manhattan,
NY — Investigators on Friday raided the office and Upper East Side apartment of
billionaire Michael Steinhardt and seized several works of ancient art,
according to a search warrant reviewed by Patch. Steinhardt had several ancient
antiques in his office and apartment that date to as early as the seventh century
B.C., according to the warrant. Among them were Proto-Corinthian figures that
depict a duck and owl that both date from the sixth century B.C.; an Apulian
terracotta flask from the fourth century B.C.; and a Greek white-ground oil
vessel from the fourth century B.C.” Details of each item follow below.
Pro-Corinthian owl and duck
figurines. Picture credits: Anon (2021a).
Adapted from Vance (2021b). Dating to 650-625 B.C.E., the
Proto-Corinthian Duck depicts a duck with its head facing backward. The Proto-Corinthian Owl has the same date
range. Both were looted from an Etruscan tomb in Central Italy. They first
surfaced on the international art market when they were displayed at the Musée
de l’Art etd’Histoire in Geneva from 1978-1981 and then at the Getty Museum
from 1984-1996. On June 12, 1996, Symes sold the both Proto-Corinthian Duck and
the Proto-Corinthian Owl to the Beierwaltes for $120,000 and $150,000
respectively. In 2006, the Beierwaltes consigned their entire collection, to
include the Proto-Corinthian Duck, and Proto-Corinthian Owl to Phoenix Ancient
Art. In 2009, Steinhardt purchased both figurines from Phoenix Ancient Art for
a total of $250,000. Although Phoenix Ancient Art provided a warranty that it
had “the right to sell” both objects, no verifiable provenance for either prior
to the 1978 Musée de l’Art et d’Histoire exhibition has ever been identified.
Apulian African Head Flask
Apulian African Head Flask.
Picture credit: Anon (2021a).
Crafted in Apulia in Southern
Italy between 400-300 B.C.E., and featuring red and black paint, the Apulian
African Head Flask first surfaced on the international art market when it was displayed
at the same Musée de l’Art et d’Histoire exhibition in Geneva from 1978-1981 as
the previous two items before being displayed at the Getty from 1984-1996.
These were the same exhibitions (and in the same order) used by Medici to
launder his looted antiquities as described above. Again, in 1996, Symes sold
it to the Beierwaltes, who sold it on Phoenix Ancient Art. Steinhardt in turn,
bought it in 2009. Although Phoenix Ancient Art provided a warranty that it had
“the right to sell” the object, no verifiable provenance for the Apulian
African Head Flask prior to the 1978 Musée de l’Art et d’Histoire exhibition
has ever been identified. Vance (2021b).
The above three items appear in
the ‘Medici Dossier’ a series of documents confiscated from Giacomo Medici, by
Italian authorities from the eponymous looted antiquities dealer.
The following item is linked to
another infamous ancient art smuggler, named Gianfranco Becchina .
Etruscan
White-Ground Aryballos.
This is a vessel which is used to
contain oil or perfume and is used during bathing. Noted by Feuerherd (2018),
above as ‘Greek white-ground oil vessel from the fourth century B.C’.
From Vance (2021b): “The Etruscan
White-Ground Aryballos appears in numerous photographs stapled to a single page
in the Becchina archive. See Exhibit 25A. Depicting two women bathing, the
Etruscan White-Ground Aryballos was crafted in Central Italy between 725-600
B.C.E. as a small accessory to contain fragrant oil or perfume. According to
Becchina’s notes, between 1995 and 1997, he attempted to exhibit the Etruscan
White-Ground Aryballos in museums and galleries to increase its value. In
October 1998, the Etruscan White-Ground Aryballos first surfaced on the
international art market when Fiorella Cottier-Angeli sold it to Phoenix
Ancient Art. Dr. Cottier-Angeli worked for Swiss customs and was ultimately
charged in Italy as a Medici co-conspirator for using her position in Swiss
customs to facilitate the smuggling of trafficked antiquities. Steinhardt
purchased the Etruscan White-Ground Aryballos from Phoenix Ancient Art for
$55,000 in 2009. See Exhibit 25B for the most recent photograph of the Etruscan
White-Ground Aryballos. Although Phoenix Ancient Art provided a warranty that
it had “the right to sell” the object, no verifiable provenance for the
Etruscan White-Ground Aryballos prior to the 1998 sale from Cottier-Angeli to
Phoenix Ancient Art has ever been identified.”
Iraqi Gold Bowl looted from Nimrud.
The Nimrud Bowl. Picture credit: Mashburg
(2021).
Vance (2021b): “Crafted from gold with a scalloped flower design, the
Gold Bowl was looted from Nimrud, a city in Northern Iraq that had its height
in the modern Assyrian Age (911-612 B.C.E.). As previously discussed, an
international investigation determined that more than 10,000 antiquities were
stolen from Baghdad’s Iraq Museum in April 2003. During the course of the
investigation, the team recovered and photographed many items from Nimrud
identical to the Gold Bowl. Beginning in 2015, objects from Nimrud were again
trafficked when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targeted
cultural heritage from Nimrud, Hatra, and Khorsabad, often documenting their
efforts on YouTube. ISIL even established a Department of Antiquities to profit
from the looting of antiquities from its territory and supplied locals with
looting “permits.” According to a 2016 complaint filed by the Office of the
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, ISIL placed special emphasis on
ancient objects made of gold or precious metal and demanded locals find such
objects.
The Gold Bowl first surfaced on the international art market on
October 22, 2019, when Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Officer Christopher Foulkes
notified this Office that Svatoslav Konkin was on a flight from Hong Kong to
Newark, New Jersey, hand-carrying the Gold Bowl for Steinhardt. Konkin
initially stated that he had purchased the Gold Bowl in 2011 and that it was of
Tajik origin. He later admitted, however, that he knew the Gold Bowl would be stopped
by customs officials if declared any antiquity as Iranian or Iraqi. As a result
of the ongoing investigation into Steinhardt, this Office directed that the Gold
Bowl be returned to Konkin so he could deliver it as planned. He did so. And on
July, 10, 2020, Steinhardt purchased the Gold Bowl from Konkin with no prior
provenance for $150,000. Although Konkin claimed in a letter to Steinhardt that
the Gold Bowl “has clear history which goes back at least up to 1970 and
earlier,” no verifiable provenance prior to Konkin’s 2019 arrival into the
United States has ever been identified.
Neolithic
stone figure of a female
Palestinian Neolithic Figurine.
Picture credit: Vance (2021b).
Vance (2021b), The Neolithic
Female figurine dates to circa 7000-6000 B.C.E. and originated from a site near
Hebron. The Yellow Note recovered from Steinhardt’s files notes the Neolithic
Female was found “near Hebron” in Israel. The Neolithic Female first surfaced
on the international art market on February 1, 1991, when Steinhardt purchased
it from Rafi Brown with no prior provenance.
Rafi Brown, a/k/a Rafael Braun
(b. 1936), began his career as a conservator and researcher of antiquities.
According to Israeli law-enforcement authorities, Brown began working at the
Israel Museum in the mid-1960s and ultimately was responsible for cleaning,
restoring, and analyzing new acquisitions of Judaica. Through his work at the
museum, Brown often met suppliers of freshly discovered antiquities. For
example, in 1974, Brown notified researchers at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem of an antiquity freshly discovered by someone in el-Arish, a town in
the Northern Sinai.
On December 2, 2019, Israeli
law-enforcement authorities interviewed Brown. On July 8, 2020, they executed a
search warrant at Brown’s residence in Herzeliya, recovering documents and
looted antiquities and conducting a second interview. Then, on January 14,
2021, they executed additional search warrants at Brown’s residences in
Herzeliya, Petah Tiqwa, and Jerusalem, recovering looted antiquities, Polaroid
photographs, and documents, including correspondence with Steinhardt’s
curators.
In a letter from Brown recovered
from Steinhardt’s files, Brown described the antiquity as: “Human Neolithic
figure probably of a female.” As previously discussed, no record of payment for
the Neolithic Female has ever been identified though Steinhardt’s records
contain a note, “piece purchased from Rafi Brown in February, 1991 no invoice. No
verifiable provenance for the Neolithic Female prior to the 1991 sale from
Brown to Steinhardt has ever been identified.
This female, Neolithic figurine
interests me greatly, as it is dated in the same time frame as the Neolithic
stone face masks and was perhaps made by the same culture? Picture credit:
Vance (2021a).
Sardinian Stone Idol
The Sardinian Stone Idol, after restoration and broken prior to
restoration from the Medici papers. Picture credits: Albertson (2018).
Adapted from Albertson (2018) and other sources: A little more than
two weeks ago, following a second set of seizures at the residence and office
of Michael Steinhardt in New York City, ARCA wrote a blog post outlining other
antiquities from the billionaire's private collection that have raised concerns
with illicit trafficking researchers.
One of those objects was a marble Female Idol of the Ozieri Culture
from Sardinia.
The Ozieri culture was a Neolithic
culture that occupied Sardinia from c. 3200 to 2800 BC. The people lived in
small villages of round huts with archaeological finds indicating that this was
a society based around a hunter-gather lifestyle with a little pastoralism and
early agriculture. The Ozieri produced
finely made ceramic pottery with complex patterns, incisions and surface
decoration. Such ceramics were a novelty for prehistoric Sardinia, since up to
that point they had been considered typical of the Cyclades and Crete. Finds of
weapons within interments are rare, perhaps indicating, that this was a
peaceful society. Figurines recovered indicate the Ozieri may have worshiped a
mother goddess, with the most well known example being an alabaster statuette
found at Ponto Ferro Tomb, Senorbì, and that confiscated from Michael
Steinhardt. Its context and its exact origin on Sardinia, may sadly never be known.
Picture Credits: Inf.news (2022)
This idol was seized on January
24, 2018 during the execution of a new search warrant carried out by law
enforcement authorities working with the Manhattan District Attorney and
HSI. The artifact was removed from Steinhardt's
New York City residence.
Three years earlier, on November
21, 2014, Christos Tsirogiannis, a stolen art sleuth, identified this marble
artifact, dating from 2500-2000 B.C.E. when it came up for auction as part of
Christie's December 11, 2014 sales event.
Listed as Lot 85 in the New York sale, the idol had an estimated bid
price of $800,000 to $1,200,000 USD.
Tsirogiannis had matched the
antiquity online via Christie's web version of its sale catalog to a photo
contained in the confiscated archives of antiquities dealer Giacomo
Medici. Having made the ID, Tsirogiannis
emailed his concerns to US Federal law enforcement and Italian law enforcement
authorities working towards eventual repatriation should Italy file a
claim. Additionally he notified ARCA, in
hopes of drawing further attention to potentially trafficked pieces that often
resurface on the licit market but which omit passages through the hands of
known dealers involved in the sale of illicit objects.
The sales catalog for the
Christies auction is stored online here, although the photo of the idol has
subsequently been removed from the object's accompanying Lot description. Of note is the addition of a brief entry into
the "Cataloguing & details" section of the listing, which states
only that the object was withdrawn from the sale.
The artifact above matches
perfectly with the image below which Tsirogiannis located in the dealer's
archive. In the art dealer's records
the statuette appeared atop a turquoise background and broken in multiple
pieces, prior to the object's subsequent restoration.
Before arriving in the collection
of Michael and Judy Steinhardt in 1997, the Ozieri Culture idol, also known as
the Turriga Mother Goddess figure, passed through Harmon Fine Arts and the
Merrin Gallery, both of New York. Once
part of the collection of Leonard Norman Stern, the object had been displayed,
but not photographed, in a 1990 "Masterpieces of Cycladic Art from Private
Collections, Museums and the Merrin Gallery" event where both Steinhardt and
Stern were present.
On November 27, 2014 when the
contested object was pulled from the Christie's auction, it apparently was sent
back to Steinhardt, where it was later re-identified as still being part of
Steinhardt's collection when officers searched his New York City home on
January 5, 2018 pursuant to an earlier search warrant. The Idol has now been
returned to Italy.
Conclusion
I could continue detailing
objects seized from Michael Steinhardt. I have barely scratched the surface as
180+ were seized and Steinhardt bought at least 1550 artifacts between 1986 and
the 2018. Instead I will leave you with a couple of collages of some of the
most interesting pieces, I haven’t had time to cover.
Top row L-R: Corinthian Lion
Vessel, Etruscan 600-550 B.C.E.; Corinthian Bull’s Head, central Italy 580
B.C.E.; Ionian Ram’s Head, Etruscan 500-600 B.C.E.; Italo-Corinthian Duck
Vessel, looted from Faleri, Italy 600-500 B.C.E.; Faliscan Askos (oil jug),
Etruscan, 400-300 B.C.E.
Bottom row L-R: Etruscan Oinochoe
(wine jug), 490-480 B.C.E.; Leagros Hydria (three handle pitcher), Etruscan,
510 B.C.E.; Attic African Head Aryballos, Etruscan, 500-400 B.C.E.; Attic Black
Figure Amphora, Etruscan or Sicilian, ca. 550 B.C.E.; Attic Black-Figure Eye
Kylix, Etrurian, 540 B.C.E.
Top
row L-R: Gold Masks, Israel (Palestine?), Chalcolithic 5000 B.C.E.; Griffin Lebes
(cauldron) bronze, with stand, Lazio Italy, ca. 700 B.C.E.; Helmet, iron,
silver and bronze, Pletena, Bulgaria, ca. 400-300 B.C.E.; Bronze Bird Rattle Malazgirt,
Muş province, Eastern Turkey, 1000 to 500 B.C.E.; Glass Oinochoe, Rhodes,
Greece, 400-300 B.C.E.
Bottom row L-R: Gold Brooch, Rhodes
Greece cia.600 B.C.E.; Stone Skull, Arad Valley or Hebron Mountains, Palestinian,
7,000 B.C.E., featured in the exhibition Face to Face: The Oldest Masks in the
World at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem between March and September 2014, along
with the eight other Neolithic Stone Masks from Steinhardt.; Corinthian Helmeted
Head Aryballos, Etrurian 500 B.C.E.; Figulina
Plate, Etruscan, dates to 540 B.C.E.; Gallo-Roman enamelled Situla (bucket),
likely from Roman Gallia Cisalpina, the northern part of Italy between the Alps
and the Apennines Dating to 100-200 C.E.
References
Albertson, L. (2018) New seizure
at the residence of New York Collector Michael Steinhardt – January 24, 2018.
ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes against Art), at: https://art-crime.blogspot.com/2018/01/january-24-2018-new-seizure-at.html
Anon (2021a). New York
Billionaire Surrenders 180 Stolen Antiquities Valued At $70 Million. Archaeology
News Network. At: https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2021/12/new-york-billionaire-surrenders-180.html
Anon (2021b) Michael Steinhardt
Surrenders 180 Stolen Antiquities Valued at $70 Million. Archaeology Wiki. At: https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2021/12/08/michael-steinhardt-surrenders-180-stolen-antiquities-valued-at-70-million/
Anon (2021c). Michael Steinhardt:
US billionaire hands over antiquities worth $70m. BBC News. At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59543021
Feuerherd, B. (2018). Ancient Antiques Seized From Manhattan
Billionaire's Home. Patch. At: https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/ancient-antiques-seized-manhattan-billionaire-s-home
Hershman, D. (2014) Face to Face: The Oldest Masks in the
World. Catalogue for the exhibition. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
March–September 2014. Online at: https://museum.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/face-to-face/pdf/9.pdf
Inf.news (2022). American billionaire resells stolen
cultural relics, and is now forced to hand over 180 pieces worth 70 million US
dollars. Inf.news at: https://inf.news/en/world/effcbacb30e88c92cd6b837d61e9f2fe.html
Mashburg, T. (2021). Michael Steinhardt, Billionaire,
Surrenders $70 Million in Stolen Relics. New York Times. At: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/arts/design/steinhardt-billionaire-stolen-antiquities.html
Vance, C. R.
jnr. (2021a). In the Matter of a Grand Jury Investigation into a Private New
York Antiquities Collector (Exhibits 1-92). District Attorney New York County. At:
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21141912/steinhardt-exhibits-1-92-filed.pdf
Vance, C. R. jnr. (2021b). In the Matter of a Grand Jury Investigation
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Attorney New York County.
https://images.law.com/contrib/content/uploads/documents/292/102693/2021-12-06-Steinhardt-Complete-Agreement-w-Exhibits-Filed.pdf
