Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Returns 44 Artifacts to Egypt, Italy, and Turkey

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) on December 5 announced that it had deaccessioned and repatriated forty-four ancient objects, following the conclusion of a six-month investigation by the Manhattan DA’s office and the US Department of Homeland Security, in which it was a cooperative participant.The museum was first alerted this past May to the possibility that twenty-eight objects in its possession had been stolen, looted, or trafficked; after the institution submitted to the abovementioned authorities requested documentation, it was discovered that an additional twenty-nine were of questionable provenance. The VMFA on its own found four more such objects, bringing the total of investigated antiquities to sixty-one. Of these, forty-four were deemed to have been stolen or looted.RelatedDETAILS FOR FIRST-EVER MALTA BIENNALE ANNOUNCEDJESSE DARLING WINS 2023 TURNER PRIZE The antiquities were returned to Egypt, Italy, and Turkey, respectively. Among the repatriated works were a red-figurelekythos, a type of Greek vessel used to store oil, dating to the fourth century BCE and credited to the Underworld Painter; a 650–550 BCE Egyptian cosmetic container made from faience, considered to havemagical properties, and representing the god Bes, a household protector; and a bronze Etruscan warrior that had been snatched from the Museo Civico Archeologico in Bologna, Italy, in 1963.

All repatriated works are believed to have entered the VFMA’s collection between the 1970s and the 1990s, with no museum staff implicated in their arrival. “The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts returns any works in its collection that are discovered to be unlawfully held. The museum takes seriously, and responds to, all restitution claims for works in our collection,” said VMFA director and CEO Alex Nyerges in a statement. “This is not just our policy.

It is the right thing to do. We fully support the decision to repatriate these forty-four works of ancient art.”.