Looted Treasure? Headless Statue Depicting Emperor-Philosopher Marcus Aurelius is Pitting Cleveland Museum of Art against Manhattan DA

A beheaded antique statue is pitting Manhattan DA office against the Cleveland Museum of Art.

An emperor-philosopher, a beheaded statue, a nation in search of looted treasures, a municipal DA office and an Art museum: all the ingredients of a fine political and judicial art drama.

The Cleveland Museum of Art on Thursday filed a court challenge in Federal District Court in Ohio, seeking to block a ‘seizure in place’ order from New York investigators from the Manhattan DA’s office.

The investigators allege that a headless antique bronze statue, valued at $20 million, was looted from Turkey in the 1960s.

In its suit, the museum calls the evidence presented by the investigators uncompelling. The museum disputes that the statue was even from Turkey and suggested that it really depicts a philosopher, and not an emperor.

The New York Times reported:

“Describing the investigators’ evidence as ‘conjecture’, the museum said in its filing: ‘In this case, the evidence presented by the Defendant has fallen short of persuasive proof that the Philosopher is in fact a piece of stolen property belonging to the Republic of Türkiye’.

The investigators had already persuaded a New York judge to authorize the seizure of the bronze that, with its flowing robes and stoic posture, has held pride of place in the Greek and Roman galleries at the museum in Cleveland since its acquisition in 1986. Turkish investigators have said they also have evidence the statue in Cleveland was looted but officials said the museum had fended off their claims, saying Turkey had provided no hard evidence of theft.”

It is a rare for a museum to challenge a seizure order from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been responsible for the return of thousands of items to countries where they had been looted from.

The Cleveland Museum of Art furthermore asked the court to declare the museum the rightful owner of the statue.

“Investigators responded to the court challenge with a statement that said: ‘The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has successfully recovered more than 4,600 illegally trafficked antiquities from numerous individuals and institutions. We are reviewing the museum’s filing in this matter and will respond in court papers’.”

The investigators think the statue was once part of a shrine built around A.D. 50, in Turkey, to honor a succession of Roman emperors.

Turkish officials have already gotten back several other statues thought to have been from the same location.

“In the past year, as part of its investigation into the Turkish looting claims, the district attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has seized artifacts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art at Fordham University; and the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts.

[…] In its filing on Thursday, the museum said that it had bought the statue in 1986 from the Edward H. Merrin Gallery for $1.85 million. The museum provided a bill of sale from the date of its purchase that said it was buying a ‘Figure of a Draped Emperor (Probably Marcus Aurelius), Roman, late 2nd Century A.D., bronze’.”

The museum argues that the statue was lawfully obtained, and that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has no legal authority to seize it.

Associated Press reported:

“The suit filed Thursday asks a judge to declare that the museum is the rightful owner of the statue, which it calls ‘one of the most significant works in the (museum’s) collection’ of some 61,000 objects. Museum officials have repeatedly told the district attorney that their evidence is insufficient and suggested other investigative avenues, according to the suit, but all have been refused.”

The museum removed the statue from view and changed the description on its website, where it calls the statue a “Draped Male Figure” instead of indicating a connection to Marcus Aurelius.

“Turkey first made claims about the statue in 2012 when it released a list of nearly two dozen objects in the Cleveland museum’s collection that it said had been looted from Bubon and other locations. Museum officials said at the time that Turkey had provided no hard evidence of looting.”

Read more about art theft:

Scottish Museum Just Noticed That a Statue by French Master Rodin Has Been Missing – For 75 Years!

Museum Worker Stole Paintings From Storage, Replaced Them With Bad Forgeries, Sold Them to Finance Lavish Lifestyle

Detective Arthur Brand, the ‘Indiana Jones of the Art World’: ‘You Don’t Find Stolen Art at the Salvation Army, You Have to Talk to Criminals’