Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced yesterday that a bronze emperor statue from Boubon, a marble head of Demosthenes and terracotta tablets from Düver are being returned to Türkiye from the United States after the completion of restitution procedures.
In a statement on his social media account, Ersoy said, “Boubon’s lost emperor is coming home. We secured the return of the bronze emperor statue smuggled from the ancient city of Boubon in Burdur through international cooperation and a determined legal process. This is one of the strongest examples of our global efforts to protect our cultural heritage.”
Ersoy said the U.S. collector who illegally purchased the statue would have faced arrest if he refused to return it, adding that he avoided imprisonment by handing the piece back.
“Along with the emperor statue, the marble head of Demosthenes and terracotta tablets from Düver will also be repatriated,” he said. During two separate ceremonies attended by Deputy Minister Gökhan Yazgı, 28 artifacts previously approved for return were formally handed over.
“With these, we have reunited 9,133 cultural assets with Anatolian soil over the past seven years. I thank the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, U.S. Homeland Security and our Ministry’s Anti-Smuggling Department, which has tracked these pieces like detectives since day one. We will continue tracing every artifact belonging to Türkiye wherever it may be,” he said.
According to the ministry, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has also finalized the return of a marble column capital depicting Archangel Michael. Provenance research revealed that the piece had been removed illegally from the Meryem Ana Peribleptos Monastery in Istanbul’s Samatya district.
The 28 artifacts whose legal procedures had already been completed were formally received from U.S. authorities by Deputy Minister Yazgı. They include items originating from Boubon, archaic terracotta plaques from Düver and the Roman-era marble head of Demosthenes.
The return of the Boubon emperor statue was secured through an investigation conducted by U.S. prosecutors and federal authorities. An arrest warrant issued for collector Aaron Mendelsohn played a key role in the artifact’s repatriation.
The ministry said it worked in close coordination with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and U.S. Homeland Security throughout the process and completed all necessary procedures for the statue’s transfer.
