While 2022 held several lessons for art market participants – from NFTs to Treasury regulations – the end of the year brought a reminder particularly for antiquities collectors of the need to carefully consider the provenance and history of objects in their collections. According to a recent New York Times article, the New York District Attorney’s Office (“New York D.A.”) has recovered (by its own count) nearly 4,500 antiquities since 2011.[1] Collectors should be aware of the risks of ongoing investigations and consider updating their own policies.

Individuals

In December 2022, The Art Newspaper reported that the New York D.A. had issued search warrants on June 28, 2021 and April 27, 2022 to antiquities collector and Metropolitan Museum of Art board member Shelby White.[2] ArtNews estimates that the more than 20 items in the seizure are together worth approximately $20 million.[3] Ms. White’s extensive collection has long been the subject of academic scrutiny.[4]  Some of the seized works have been returned to Italy and Turkey, where they originated, though an expert speaking to The Art Newspaper speculated that the investigation is ongoing, based on the fact Ms. White was not named in the repatriation notices.[5]

While the magnitude and value of the works seized from Ms. White’s collection is significant, it represents only a fraction of what the New York D.A. has seized from collectors and dealers in recent years and continued repatriating through 2022. On December 6, 2021, the New York D.A. announced a Non-Prosecution Agreement (“NPA”) with hedge fund billionaire, philanthropist and antiquities collector Michael Steinhardt following a grand jury investigation into his collecting activities.[6] The NPA states that the New York D.A. obtained seventeen search warrants against Mr. Steinhardt, and obtained evidence that 180 antiquities, with a value of approximately $70 million, “constitute stolen property under New York law because they were looted and unlawfully removed from their respective countries of origin” (which Mr. Steinhardt denies).[7] Under the terms of the NPA, Mr. Steinhardt relinquished all interest in and claims to the antiquities named in that agreement and agreed to “not acquire, either directly or through any assign or agent, any antiquities (defined as artifacts created before 1500 CE) for the remainder of his life.”[8] In turn, the New York D.A., in addition to declining to prosecute Mr. Steinhardt, agreed to repatriate the named antiquities to their countries of origin.[9] That work continued well into 2022, with repatriations from the Steinhardt collection to Israel, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Bulgaria, Iraq, Turkey and Libya.[10] The New York D.A. has also been repatriating hundreds of antiquities to India and Pakistan from the collections of dealer Subhash Kapoor,[11] who in November 2022 was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in India for burglary and illegal export, and is the subject of a pending extradition request from the New York D.A.[12]

Institutions

This past year also saw several high-profile actions against major cultural institutions.  In September 2022, it became public knowledge that the New York D.A. had obtained three search warrants – executed in February, May and July – against New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art seeking allegedly looted items, and seized 27 artifacts valued at over $13 million.[13] The museum, which has faced nine warrants from the New York D.A. since 2017,[14] told The New York Times that it was fully cooperating with the investigation.[15]

The Met was not the only significant institution to be targeted by New York authorities, who also looked outside the state. In August 2022, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles announced that it would be returning five objects to Italy after receiving information from the New York D.A.[16] Then, in late September 2022, the New York D.A. returned to Egypt an artifact known as the “Green Coffin,” valued at over $1 million, after negotiating its return from the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.[17]

Lessons for Collectors

The Antiquities Trafficking Unit at the New York D.A. received significant media attention following its headline-grabbing investigations and seizures,[18] and both individual collectors and institutions holding antiquities should be aware that the provenance of their collections are at risk of increasing scrutiny from both state and federal officials. Independently, some institutions have begun revising their own policies to reflect modern standards on the collection of artifacts that go beyond legal claims for artifacts that may have been looted. In May 2022, the Smithsonian announced a new “ethical returns policy.”[19] As part of that policy, the Smithsonian affirms that all items in its extensive collections must have been acquired “legally,” but goes beyond that to consider “current ethical practice and principles.”[20] As part of that obligation, the Smithsonian pledges to not only consider the “care and potential return of human remains and/or objects of tangible cultural heritage,” but also “shar[e] associated information.”[21] Similarly, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston received attention for its high-profile repatriation of a group of statues “indisputably looted” from Nigeria.[22] (The numerous developments in 2022 in the ongoing saga of the return of many of the “Benin Bronzes” to Nigeria from American and European museums are a topic unto themselves.)  Collectors and institutions may be well-served in considering the potential upside of investing resources into examining their collection policies in light of mounting external pressures – including local, state or federal officials and foreign governments.[23]


[1] Graham Bowley, For U.S. Museums With Looted Art, the Indiana Jones Era Is Over, N.Y. Times (Dec. 13, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/arts/museums-looted-art-repatriation.html.

[2] Claire Voon, Looted antiquities returned to Turkey and Italy were seized from New York home of Met trustee Shelby White, The Art Newspaper (Dec. 2, 2022), https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/12/02/looted-antiquities-returned-to-turkey-and-italy-were-seized-from-new-york-home-of-met-trustee-shelby-white.

[3] Angelica Villa, Artifacts from Met Trustee’s Collection Seized in New York, ArtNews (Dec. 6, 2022), https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/shelby-white-artifacts-seized-met-trustee-1234649351/.  The blog Looting Matters put the value even higher, at $24 million.  See David Gill, $24 million worth of antiquities reported to have been seized from NYC collector, Looting Matters (Dec. 2, 2022), https://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2022/12/24-million-worth-of-antiquities.html.

[4] See Elisabetta Povoledo, Collector Returns Art Italy Says Was Looted, N.Y. Times (Jan. 18, 2008), https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/arts/18collect.html; Robin Pogrebin, $200 Million Gift Prompts a Debate Over Antiquities, N.Y. Times (Apr. 1, 2006), https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/arts/200-million-gift-prompts-a-debate-over-antiquities.html.

[5] Claire Voon, Looted antiquities returned to Turkey and Italy were seized from New York home of Met trustee Shelby White, The Art Newspaper (Dec. 2, 2022), https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/12/02/looted-antiquities-returned-to-turkey-and-italy-were-seized-from-new-york-home-of-met-trustee-shelby-white.

[6] District Attorney, New York County, In the Matter of a Grand Jury Investigation into a Private New York Antiquities Collector (Dec. 6, 2021) (the “Steinhardt NPA”), available online at https://images.law.com/contrib/content/uploads/documents/292/102693/2021-12-06-Steinhardt-Complete-Agreement-w-Exhibits-Filed.pdf.

[7] Id. paras. 2, 3; id. Ex. B at p. 1.

[8] Id. para. 4.

[9] Id. para. 5.

[10] Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg Returns 16 Stolen Antiquities to the People of Egypt (Sept. 7, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-16-stolen-antiquities-to-the-people-of-egypt/ (the return also included antiquities from other seizures); Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A Bragg Returns 142 Antiquities Valued at Nearly $14 Million to the People of Italy (July 20, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-142-antiquities-valued-at-nearly-14-million-to-the-people-of-italy/ (the return also included antiquities from other seizures); Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg: 39 Antiquities Valued at More Than $5 Million Repatriated to the People of Israel (Mar. 22, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-39-antiquities-valued-at-more-than-5-million-repatriated-to-the-people-of-israel/; Tom Mashberg, Antiquities Valued at More Than $20 Million Returned to Greece, N.Y. Times (Feb. 24, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/arts/design/antiquities-greek-20-million.html; Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg:  Ancient Helmet Likely Belonging to Philip of Macedon Returned to the People of Bulgaria (Feb. 10, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-ancient-helmet-likely-belonging-to-philip-of-macedon-returned-to-the-people-of-bulgaria/; Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg:  Two Antiquities Seized from Michael Steinhardt Returned to the People of Iraq (Jan. 18, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-two-antiquities-seized-from-michael-steinhardt-returned-to-the-people-of-iraq/; Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg:  28 Antiquities Repatriated to the People of Turkey (Jan. 21, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-28-antiquities-repatriated-to-the-people-of-turkey/ (the return also included antiquities from another seizure); Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg:  $1.2M Antiquity Seized From Michael Steinhardt Returned to the People of Libya (Jan. 12, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-1-2m-antiquity-seized-from-michael-steinhardt-returned-to-the-people-of-libya/.

[11] Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg Returns 192 Stolen Antiquities to Pakistan (Nov. 10, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-192-stolen-antiquities-to-pakistan/; Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg Returns 307 Stolen Antiquities to the People of India (Oct. 17, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-307-stolen-antiquities-to-the-people-of-india/.

[12] Tessa Solomon, Antiquities Dealer Subhash Kapoor Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison by Indian Court, ArtNews (Nov. 2, 2022), https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/subhash-kapoor-sentenced-prison-india-1234645200/.

[13] Tom Mashberg and Graham Bowley, Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiquities From Met, N.Y. Times (Sept. 2, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/arts/design/met-museum-looting.html.

[14] Spencer Woodman and Malia Politzer, Flurry of seizures intensify pressure on the Met over artifacts linked to accused traffickers, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (Aug. 31, 2022), https://www.icij.org/investigations/hidden-treasures/flurry-of-seizures-intensify-pressure-on-the-met-over-artifacts-linked-to-accused-traffickers/.

[15] Tom Mashberg and Graham Bowley, Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiquities From Met, N.Y. Times (Sept. 2, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/arts/design/met-museum-looting.html.

[16] La Voce di New York, J. Paul Getty Museum Will Return Stolen Artifacts to their Native Italy (Aug. 12, 2022), https://lavocedinewyork.com/en/news/2022/08/12/j-paul-getty-museum-will-return-stolen-artefacts-to-their-native-italy/#:~:text=The%20J.,as%20Orpheus%20and%20the%20Sirens.

[17] Press Release, New York District Attorney, D.A. Bragg Returns Green Coffin from The Houston Museum of Natural Sciences to the People of Egypt (Sept. 28, 2022), https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-green-coffin-from-the-houston-museum-of-natural-sciences-to-the-people-of-egypt/.

[18] See, e.g., Ariel Sabar, The Tomb Raiders of the Upper East Side, The Atlantic (Nov. 23, 2021), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/12/bogdanos-antiquities-new-york/620525/; Tom Mashberg, Looking for a Stolen Idol? Visit the Museum of the Manhattan D.A., N.Y. Times (Nov. 17, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/arts/design/antiquities-manhattan-da.html.

[19] Press Release, Smithsonian, Smithsonian Adopts Policy on Ethical Returns (May 3, 2022), https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-adopts-policy-ethical-returns.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Ted Loos, A Long Way Home for ‘Looted’ Art Is Getting Shorter, N.Y. Times (Apr. 27, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/arts/design/victoria-reed-museum-of-fine-arts-stolen-artwork.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.

[23] See Graham Bowley, For U.S. Museums With Looted Art, the Indiana Jones Era Is Over, N.Y. Times (Dec. 13, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/arts/museums-looted-art-repatriation.html.