Denver Art Museum Returns Roman Portrait to Türkiye

Source: Denver Art Museum

A fifth century CE Roman portrait excavated in the agora at Izmir in the early 1930s has been returned to Türkiye. The Denver Art Museum acquired the portrait as a bequest from Marie Therese Macy in 2005. 

The museum has given a little more information about the 2005 bequest:

While some details of the marble head’s journey from the agora to the Denver Art Museum remain unknown, we do know the head was gifted to the DAM in 2005 by the wife of a former foreign service officer who served as Consul General in Istanbul in the 1940s. Upon the discovery of new information, the DAM confirmed with Turkish officials that the head was considered missing, and after further research and communication, the marble head was removed from the DAM’s collection and repatriated to its country of origin.

The museum provides a slightly inaccurate picture. The statement states "The head had been excavated sometime in the 1930s– ’40s". However it appeared in Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi for 1934 and then in the Istanbuler Forschungen for 1950. 

The head is catalogued in J. Inan and E. Rosenbaum, Roman and Early Byzantine portrait sculpture (London: British Academy, 1966), 120, pl. clxxx, 1–2, no. 134. The entry notes, 'The portrait seems to be lost. An extensive search in the Izmir Museum had negative results'.

• Izmir Archaeological Museum

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