It was revealed that the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met Museum) in New York, a world-renowned American museum, has exhibited several stolen ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultural assets.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 3rd, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confiscated 27 stolen cultural assets worth a total of $13 million (about 17.7 billion won) from the Met Museum of Art.
Of these, 21 will be returned to Italy and 6 to Egypt. The two countries have decided to hold a return ceremony next week.
The Manhattan District Prosecutor’s Office explained that this is a move that hastened the process of returning cultural assets, which previously took more than a year.
It is estimated that 21 pieces of Italian relics confiscated from the Met in July are valued at $10 million, and six pieces of Egyptian relics confiscated twice in February and May are valued at $3.2 million each.
These included a terracotta cup, believed to have been made in Greece around 470 B.C., and a statue of a Greek goddess dating from around 400 B.C.
Many of the stolen cultural assets confiscated this time were found to have flowed to the Met Museum through the hands of Gianfranco Vecina, who is suspected of being involved in the smuggling of stolen cultural assets for decades while running a gallery in Switzerland.
8 pieces were found to be cultural properties that the Met Museum acquired directly from Vecina.
Beckina was convicted of smuggling stolen cultural assets in Greece, and the Italian authorities confiscated some 6,300 Greek and Roman artifacts in his possession.
Separately, prosecutors said they had recently issued a seizure warrant for a 6th-century Hindu goddess statue held by the Met Museum.
The Met Museum of Art issued a statement and explained, “The standards for collecting cultural assets have changed significantly in recent decades. Our museum has consistently reviewed related procedures and policies for the past 20 years,” but did not avoid criticism for not properly verifying the sources of the collections. can’t
“The best art museums seriously examine the history and acquisition of their collections,” said Derek Pinchum, a law professor at the University of South Texas, who specializes in cultural property ownership, told The New York Times.
Recently, the Met Museum has been embroiled in suspicion of having several stolen artifacts from the Cambodian Khmer Empire.