Getty Museum will return precious ancient bronze head to Turkey

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles announced on April 24 that it had initiated proceedings to return to Turkey an important work from its collection, a bronze head of a young man from its antiquities collection. It is a work acquired by the museum in 1971: the head, dating from between about the first century B.C. and the second century A.D., is an element, cast separately, of a life-size figure, detached from the body at the top of the neck, with evidence of ancient joints inside along the break. An inscribed alpha (“A”) is visible inside the neck on the lower back edge. The eyes, once inlaid with an unknown material, have not been preserved.

The figure’s body has not been identified, but the head has been associated by some scholars with the archaeological site of Bubon in Burdur province, southwestern Turkey, where illegal excavations in the late 1960s unearthed several ancient bronzes that were later sold abroad. Most depict Roman emperors and members of their family. The head of the young man, however, is highly idealized and has not been identified as a member of an imperial family or any other named individual.

The decision to return the work to Turkey, the museum notes, is in accordance with the Getty’s policy of returning objects to the country of origin, or in which the modern discovery occurred, when reliable information indicates that they were stolen or illegally excavated. The museum has removed the object from the exhibit at the Getty Villa Museum and has initiated paperwork to return it to Turkey.

“In light of new information recently provided by Matthew Bogdanos and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office indicating the illegal excavation of this bronze head, we agreed that the object should be returned to Turkey,” said Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum. “We seek to continue to build a constructive relationship with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and with our archaeological colleagues, conservators, curators and other scholars working in Turkey, with whom we share a mission to promote the preservation of ancient cultural heritage.”

Getty Museum will return precious ancient bronze head to Turkey

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