A bronze Hermes bought in 1971 goes home to Türkiye

A bronze Hermes that a New York museum bought in 1971 is now among 100 objects sent back to Türkiye. The small figure dates to the 1st century BCE or the 1st century CE. Prosecutors value it at about $500,000.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office says the figure was looted from Türkiye. A convicted dealer took it out of the country in the 1960s. In 1971 the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought it with no provenance (the record of who owned an object and where it has been).

The context

It was one of 100 objects in a return announced on 18 September 2026. The office values the Türkiye group at over $2.2 million. Of the 100, 52 were seized from the museum.

This was the tenth return the office has made to Türkiye. Its total for the country is now 276 objects, valued at $96.5 million. Pakistan and Thailand were in the same announcement, with 36 and 11 objects.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the breadth of these returns shows that antiquities trafficking is global.

Istanbul puts the objects on show

Türkiye showed the 100 objects at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums on 2 November, Anadolu Agency reports. Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos were there. A show called No Escape: Boubon opened at the same event.

Finds include these items.

• 40 items from Horoztepe, dated to 2300 to 2000 BC
• 44 clay panels from Düver in Burdur, dated to 700 to 480 BC
• A portrait from the ancient city of Aphrodisias

Boubon's bronze statues were dug up illegally in the 1960s, the agency says. They were taken apart and spread across collections in several countries. Research by Professor Jale İnan helped show where they came from. Digs at Boubon resumed in 2023, Ersoy said.

What it means for buyers and museums

Ersoy praised the work with the Antiquities Trafficking Unit. Teamwork like this, Ersoy said, pushes museums, collectors and the market to study provenance with more care.

Bogdanos said the New York unit has got back 6,452 looted objects, 276 of them from Türkiye. He added that museums, auction houses, galleries and collectors should check origins with more care.

Our view

We think any buyer or lender should ask for the paper trail first, as Bogdanos urges.

I cannot find my own keys, so tracing a statuette across decades humbles me.

What do you think?