Value of Looted Objects at Met Museum Tops $95M After New Seizures
After several antiquities were removed from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection in June, the total valuation of looted artifacts surrendered by the museum has reached about $95 million, according to reporting cited by Hyperallergic. Investigators have taken 120 objects from the Met since 2017, ranging in value from $20,000 to $26 million, alongside hundreds of smaller items tied to smuggling schemes. The Met said the recoveries are being handled jointly by its provenance research team—created in 2023 and now a 12-person unit led by former Sotheby’s restitution head Lucian Simmons—and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit led by Matthew Bogdanos. The June removals included ancient sculptures and vessels from Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey that the museum said were transferred to the DA’s office after being flagged as improperly acquired, not forcibly seized.
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This story was covered in Seized Treasures, Culture Cash, and Political Pressure