Statues from Bubon and Returns to Türkiye

Reconstruction of Statue Base from Bubon

The looting of the series of bronze imperial statues from the sebasteion at Bubon in Türkiye was shocking. Yet more than half a century on the authorities in Türkiye are achieving the gradual return of the statues, or parts of the statues, that were identified and discussed (among others) by Cornelius C. Vermeule and Arielle P. Kozloff. The display of the statues as originally intended will move a little closer.

The returns include statues of Lucius Verus, the possible leg of a statue of Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, as well as the head of a ruler, a woman, a bearded head, and the head of a youth.

Yet there appears to be active reluctance to accept that the draped man, once presented as Marcus Aurelius, did derive from this group. We also do not know what will happen to the statue in Houston. 

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Bronze kline returns to Türkiye

Source: J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum has decided to return bronze kline to Türkiye [press release]. This was acquired from Nikolas Koutoulakis in 1982.

The kline and other objects seemingly derived from Türkiye have been discussed elsewhere (Gill 2019).

It is even suggested that the bed or kline ‘probably entered the antiquities market as the result of illicit excavations’ (Baughan and Özgen 2012, 63). It may even coincide with a bronze bed that was reported to have been looted in 1979. Interestingly it was claimed that the bed had passed through the S. Schweitzer collection; such a collection was claimed for one of the pieces that the Getty has returned to Italy and it was noted that this may have been ‘a convenient way to launder recently surfaced antiquities’ (Gill and Chippindale 2007a, 216, 229, no. 23). A further report even suggested that the bed had been acquired by a Paris dealer in 1936, though there seems to be no authenticated documentation.

Why has it taken the Getty so long to resolve this dispute? What other objects in the collection will follow the kline back to Türkiye? 

References

Baughan, E. P., and I. Özgen. 2012. "A bronze kline from Lydia." AK 55: 63–87.

Gill, D. W. J. 2019. "Context matters: Nicolas Koutoulakis, the antiquities market and due diligence." Journal of Art Crime 22: 71–78.

Gill, D. W. J., and C. Chippindale. 2007. "From Malibu to Rome: further developments on the return of antiquities." International Journal of Cultural Property 14: 205-40.

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Attic Funerary Relief Returns to Greece

Sources: Hellas et Roma; Hellenic Ministry of Culture

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture has announced that part of a fourth century BCE Attic marble stele has been returned from an anonymous US private collection [Press Release]. The relief featured in an advertisement for the gallery Palladion Antike Kunst that appeared in the back of a 1982 exhibition catalogue produced by the Swiss-based organisation Hellas et Roma.  (The Ministry of Culture press release misleadingly suggests that the relief appeared in an exhibition catalogue implying that the stele was displayed.) A parallel for the stele was found at Kallithea in 1896; it marked the burial of Agnostrate daughter of Theodotos (Athens NM inv. 1863: cat. no. 417).

Christos Tsirogiannis has verified that images of the returning stele feature in the Becchina archive, and specifically to Nino Savoca, a dealer based in Munich. It appears that the stele first surfaced in the late 1970s. 

This stele forms part of a growing list of objects returned to Greece and Italy that had featured in the Becchina archive. Yet the Hellenic Ministry of Culture seems to be reluctant to seek the return of other objects that feature in this source, notably the Cycladic figure in the Leonard Stern collection (and currently on loan to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art) and the pithos, probably from Rhodes, in the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. (The Italian authorities, likewise, do not seem to have requested the return of fragmentary wall-paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum.) 

Source: Hellenic Ministry of Culture

The stele fragment was returned with two other items: a fragmentary 4th century BCE funerary stele, perhaps from Thessaly, showing a woman (next to a child; note the raised hand) who holds a box; and an hellenistic bronze male figure, perhaps of an athlete. 

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