Authorities have seized an allegedly looted headless statue, believed to depict Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, from a museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, the museum’s website had until recently described the statue as “The Emperor as Philosopher, probably Marcus Aurelius (reigned AD 161-180)”.
But a few weeks ago the website changed to say it is a “Draped Male Figure, c 150 BCE-200 CE” of possibly Greek or Roman origin.
The statement added that the museum “believes that public discussion before a resolution is reached detracts from the free and open dialogue between the relevant parties that leads to the best result for all concerned”.
On Thursday, they said it was related to an “ongoing criminal investigation into a smuggling network involving antiquities looted from Turkey and trafficked through Manhattan.”
Zeynep Boz, the head of the Department for Combating Illicit Trafficking at Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said in a statement that “the enduring dispute surrounding this matter has kept Marcus Aurelius separated from his hometown for far too long”.
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