Further returns to Italy from the MMA

Formerly New York MMA 1991.11.6.1–2.
Source: MMA

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned another batch of Greek and Roman antiquities as a result of investigations by the Manhattan DA into objects handled by Frieda Tchacos, Gianfranco Becchina, and Fritz Bürki [see Manhattan DA press release].

Only one piece is highlighted in the press release, a fragmentary Sicilian terracotta relief:

Two additional adjoining fragments of the votive relief were found in the archaeological excavations of the temple of Demeter Malophoros at Selinunte, Sicily, less than ten miles from Becchina’s hometown. Those fragments remain in the Palermo Museum.

This is linked to the Becchina investigation. The relief had formed part of the Norbert Schimmel collection. One other Schimmel piece is among the repatriated objects, a bronze handle attachment in the form of a mask. Other Schimmel items appeared in earlier returns.

The two Bürki linked pieces were objects presented by Dietrich von Bothmer, an Attic bilingual cup attributed to near Psiax, and a fragmentary cup attributed to Epiktetos.

The Tchacos pieces include a pair of spherical Greek gold earrings, a pair of Roman silver cups —one carries a weight inscription for the pair — and an inscribed lid of a Roman cinerarium (Sextus Flavius Pencarpus). There is also a forged Roman funerary inscription.

These latest returns have implications for other material. A batch of material from Selinunte is discussed in my Artwashing the Past (2025) [chapter 11]. The Tchacos investigation will lead to the numerous fragments acquired by other museums (as well as the nearly 300 fragments in the Bothmer collection: and these are just the ones identified in the sample).

I am grateful to Jason Felch for drawing my attention to one of the Schimmel pieces.

A Roman Portrait to be Returned to Italy from New Zealand

A Roman marble portrait dating to the Antonine period will be returned to Italy [press release]. The female head was acquired by the Classics Museum at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2003. It is reported that the portrait was purchased "from a London dealer who is a regular supplier of antiquities to the University’s Classics museum". The dealer has not been named but the Classics Museum will need to undertake a due diligence search on the other objects derived from this source.

Postscript. It now appears that the head was purchased from Charles Ede Ltd. The portrait was said to come from a 19th century collection. 

• Deuling, J. K. (2004), ‘Classics Museum Victoria University of Wellington: in the museum’, Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity 13 (1): 169–74. [Online]

• Italian press release
• Further information on the portrait

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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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