Thursday, 13 January 2022

Steinhardt's Veiled Head from Cyrene Returned from USA



Unpapered art enters... and leaves USA
The sites remain destroyed.


American prosecutors and law enforcement officers have announced they are to return an ancient antiquity to Libya after investigators concluded that smugglers had stolen the marble artefact from its country of origin (Ahmed Maher, 'US to return looted Veiled Head of a Female antiquity to Libya' MENA Jan 13, 2022).
A long investigation last month concluded that New York billionaire Michael H Steinhardt bought the antiquity in 2000. It came from a tomb in the ancient city of Cyrene, modern day Shahhat, in north-eastern Libya. [...] [reportedly,] Mr Steinhardt – whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $1.2 billion – has owned and traded more than 1,000 antiquities since 1987 and his art collection has been valued at about $200m.[...] “I’m committed to ensuring transactions in the art industry are legal and those peddling in stolen or looted antiquities are shut down," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. "While the million-dollar price-tag on this relic is impressive, you can’t put a price on a country’s cultural heritage".[...] New York state laws allow prosecutors to return stolen property such as antiquities to its rightful owners irrespective of when the theft took place. 

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