NEW YORK, United States — The
Manhattan district
attorney’s office has returned to
Iraq two objects that it seized from
billionaire financier Michael Steinhardt and which officials said were looted during
periods of war and unrest there.
اضافة اعلان
Last month, Steinhardt, an 81-year-old Brooklyn native and
philanthropist, struck an agreement with prosecutors who said he had acquired
the relics and numerous others from known antiquities traffickers without
regard to proper documentation beginning as far back as 1987.
He surrendered a total of 180 items, valued at $70 million, and
agreed to be barred for life from acquiring additional antiquities.
The items returned Tuesday — a golden bowl and an ivory plaque —
were the fifth and sixth illicit artifacts to be returned under the new
district attorney, Alvin Bragg, signaling a readiness to continue the work of
an antiquities trafficking unit founded by his predecessor,
Cyrus Vance Jr. Although federal authorities have devoted resources specifically to curb
antiquities smuggling, the district attorney’s office is the lone law
enforcement agency with a squad dedicated to investigating such crimes.
“These illegally trafficked relics shouldn’t be kept in the
mansion of a billionaire, thousands of miles away from their homeland,” Bragg
said in a statement. “They should be on display in a museum or university in
their country of origin, where the people of that nation can view and
appreciate the glimpse into the lives of their ancestors.”
In a statement in December, Steinhardt’s lawyer said his client
was “pleased that the district attorney’s years long investigation has
concluded without any charges, and that items wrongfully taken by others will
be returned to their native countries.” He added that Steinhardt “has reserved
his rights to seek recompense from the dealers involved.”
According to court documents, the golden bowl, purchased by
Steinhardt in 2020 for $150,000, had been looted from Nimrud, Iraq, an area
where Daesh had sought to raise revenue by trafficking in ancient objects made
of gold and other precious metals. The court papers did not link the bowl
directly to Daesh, though.
Investigators said Steinhardt bought the ivory plaque, which
depicts a human-headed winged sphinx, in September 2010 for $400,000. They said
the plaque dates from the era of King Sargon I of Assyria (721-725 B.C.) and
may have been looted from northern Iraq during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Last week, the office said it returned to Libya a marble
sculpture of a woman’s head that had been bought by Steinhardt for $1.2 million
in 2000.
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