Manhattan District Attorney's Office has seized the headless statue believed to depict Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which is housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The statue is suspected of being looted from Türkiye.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney stated that the seizure was part of an ongoing investigation into a smuggling network involving looted antiques from Türkiye, trafficked through Manhattan.
Zeynep Boz, the Head of the Directorate of Fighting Against Smuggling of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, welcomed the development as a "ray of hope." She mentioned that they had provided concrete information with the coordination of their department and with the support of various units of the ministry, including the cooperation of the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Boz expressed the hope that the Cleveland Museum, which has not cooperated in the return of the artifact until now, would change its approach.
Boz also noted that the statue of Marcus Aurelius had been separated from its homeland for an extended period due to an ongoing dispute, and they hoped that the battle would now come to an end, allowing the philosopher emperor to return home.
