Met Museum Antiquities Seizures Top 120 as Manhattan DA Expands Provenance Push
A June seizure of ancient objects from the Metropolitan Museum has pushed a yearslong restitution effort into a new phase. Investigators from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office removed dozens of artifacts from the museum, bringing the total taken from the Met since 2017 to more than 120. Together, the objects are valued at more than $95 million.
The removals are part of a broader investigation into antiquities trafficking networks that flourished after World War II, along with the U.S.-based collaborators who helped move objects into the market. To identify potentially illicit works, prosecutors subpoenaed records related to pieces the museum acquired from dealers suspected of ties to trafficking.
Among the dealers linked to the latest seizures is Robert Hecht, the antiquities dealer who sold the Euphronios krater to the Met in 1972 for more than $1 million. After years of negotiation, the museum returned the 2,500-year-old Greek vase to Italy in 2008. Hecht was accused multiple times of antiquities trafficking, though he was never convicted.
The objects removed in June are believed to have been looted from Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and other countries. Their values range from $20,000 to $26 million. The group includes a first-century CE Roman marble head from Greece, a 2,000-year-old bronze statuette from Turkey, and a gold diadem decorated with rams’ heads from ancient Egypt.
The Met said the removals were the result of a joint effort with the district attorney’s office. According to the museum, prosecutors shared evidence suggesting the works had been looted, and the Met then carried out its own provenance research before returning the objects.
Lucian Simmons, who leads the Met’s team of 12 provenance experts, said in a statement that the museum “doesn’t want any stolen art in our collection.” He added that the district attorney’s office has been “an invaluable partner” because it can unlock information that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
Still, the pace of review appears to be a point of tension. Matthew Bogdanos, who heads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, said the recurring seizures at the Met “spoke for themselves” and asked, “Why are we the ones doing this?” Simmons countered that determining a work’s modern country of origin and ownership history is often complicated, and that each object deserves careful study.
The latest removals underscore how aggressively provenance research is reshaping museum collections, especially when the paper trail leads back to the shadowy postwar antiquities trade.
