Background
In 2023, the New York County Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, or NYATU, had seized a statue in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art for repatriation to the Republic of Türkiye. CMA acquired the 2nd-century headless statue of a draped male figure in 1986 for $1.85 million. Since then, the statue has become one of the star pieces of CMA’s extensive collection of Greek and Roman art and is currently valued at $20 million.
The NYATU alleged that the statue was part of the Bubon bronzes, a trove of high-quality bronzes discovered at the Roman city of Bubon in Türkiye and illegally smuggled out of the country. Over the last decade, NYATU has established a reputation for repatriating looted artworks and claims to have “recovered more than 4,500 antiquities stolen from 30 countries and valued at more than $410 million.” In 2022, the NYATU began efforts to recover the Bubon bronzes, and in March 2023 Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., announced the return of twelve pieces to Türkiye valued at over $33 million, including several held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Lawsuit
On October 19, 2023, CMA filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against Bragg as the elected District Attorney for the County of New York. In the complaint, CMA argued that the statue could represent the Greek tragedian Sophocles or Roman emperors Lucius Verus or Marcus Aurelius, but that “without the head of the Statue, based on current knowledge, any identification is virtually impossible.” CMA concludes that, based on the statue’s robes, it likely depicts a Greek philosopher and has not been proven to have any connection to Bubon. Bragg never filed an answer to CMA’s lawsuit, but on February 14, 2025, the museum dismissed the suit with prejudice. Clearly CMA’s position had changed.
Also on February 14, CMA issued a brief press release stating that,
“following the results of new scientific testing, conducted in cooperation with the Republic of Türkiye and the District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan), the Cleveland Museum of Art has made the decision to transfer the Greek or Roman bronze statue of a draped male figure (the Philosopher) to the district attorney for delivery to the Republic of Türkiye.”
Unlocking the Mystery
When the smugglers removed the statues at Bubon, they left behind the statues’ heavy stone pedestals, and these pedestals provided the key to unlocking the mystery of the provenance of the CMA statue. CMA created molds of the statue’s feet, which they then compared to the stone pedestals, which have holes to hold the feet of the statues, to determine if there was a match. Three dimensional photographic models of the CMA statue and the pedestals were also developed for further comparison. The CMA statue has a lead plug in the left foot, and using lead isotope testing the lead in the plug was compared to samples taken from the stone pedestals. Finally, soil samples from within the CMA statue were compared to the soil at Bubon and from a second statue that was taken from Bubon. The results all pointed to the CMA statue having originated from Bubon, and the museum elected to relinquish the statue for repatriation. CMA is discussing the possibility of temporarily putting the statue back on display in Cleveland before it returns to Türkiye, so fans of Roman art may have an opportunity to view the statue before it leaves the country.
CMA determined that the statue likely does not depict Marcus Aurelius, because the feet don’t match a pedestal inscribed with the Roman emperor’s name. Instead, the best fit is with an unmarked pedestal. Although we can now know the CMA statue’s provenance, its identity remains a mystery.
For more information regarding this case, contact KJK’s Christopher Hubbert (CJH@kjk.com).
