Anatolian artifacts delivered to Turkish consulate in NY

After a two-year work of the Culture and Tourism Ministry's Anti-Smuggling Department, 14 works of Anatolian origin, stolen by the U.S. art collector Michael Steinhardt, one of the world's greatest collectors of antique art, have been handed over to the New York Consulate General by the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office for their return to Turkey. The artifacts will be exhibited at the Istanbul Archeology Museum after being introduced with a special launch in Ankara.

Upon the information that Steinhardt had artifacts belonging to Anatolia, the ministry contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Homeland Security Intelligence Unit of the U.S.

Photographs of the artifacts, seized during a raid on Steinhardt's property, were sent to the Anti-Smuggling Department. Some 180 $70-million cultural assets belonging to 11 countries, mainly Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and Syria, were identified.

All illegal excavation records from the 1960s to the present, researches reporting illegal excavations, scientific publications, ministry representative reports, notes obtained from smugglers and entered into the ministry archives, newspaper reports, records of the General Directorate of Security, and eyewitness information were examined. As a result of the examination of thousands of files and photographs of the artifacts, it was determined that 14 pieces of artifacts, including deer-type riton, gold dress apparatus, mother goddess idol, mountain goat figurine, bird idols, and Kilia Idol, were of Anatolian origin.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the American Homeland Security Intelligence Unit delivered the Anatolian-origin artifacts, seized in December 2021, to the New York Consulate.

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