A bronze head of a young man dating to c.100BC-100CE is being returned to Turkey by The J Paul Getty Museum.
It follows a recent announcement by The Metropolitan Museum of Art which returned a sculpture to Iraq following provenance research.
In LA, the bronze head had been on display at Getty Villa Museum but following new information that it was illegally excavated the museum is to return it to Turkey. In a statement the museum said it was part of its “policy to return objects… when reliable information indicates that they were stolen or illegally excavated”.
The sculpture was acquired by the museum in 1971, with the head detached from the body.
The body of the figure has not been identified, but the head has been associated by some scholars with the archaeological site of Bubon, in the Burdur province of southwestern Turkey, where illicit excavations in the late 1960s brought to light several ancient bronzes that were subsequently sold abroad. Most depict Roman emperors and members of their family.
The head of a youth, however, is highly idealised and has not been identified as a member of an imperial family or as any other named individual.
'Constructive relationship'
Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum, said: “In light of new information recently provided by Manhattan District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of DA’s office indicating the illegal excavation of this bronze head, we agreed that the object needed to be returned to Turkey.”
“We seek to continue building a constructive relationship with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and with our archaeological, conservation, curatorial, and other scholarly colleagues working in Turkey, with whom we share a mission to advance the preservation of ancient cultural heritage.”
