{"id":492,"date":"2025-10-14T02:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/492\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T02:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T02:50:16","slug":"manhattan-district-attorneys-office-returns-29-antiquities-to-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/492\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Returns 29 Antiquities to Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Manhattan District Attorney<\/a>\u2018s office recently announced the return of 29 antiquities to Greece, estimated to be worth a total of $3 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe objects were seized by the office\u2019s Antiquities Trafficking Unit as part of \u201congoing investigations into multiple looting and trafficking networks, including those run by convicted traffickers Robin Symes<\/a> and Eugene Alexander,\u201d according to a press release on October 10. Notably, two of of the items were seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe items include a Bronze Foot in the Form of a Sphinx,\u00a0and Bronze Applique of a Gorgon, both from the 6th\u00a0century B.C.E.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tBronze Foot in the Form of a Sphinx depicts a siren, counter to its name. The item first appeared in the collection of a trafficker who then sold it to now-convicted art dealer Robin Symes, who then sold it to a private collector, who then donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000. The Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan DA\u2019s office seized the Bronze Foot from the museum this year. <\/p>\n

\n\tBronze Applique of a Gorgon, \u201cdepicts a running mythological Gorgon and would originally have been attached to a bronze vessel\u201d, according to a press release from the Manhattan DA\u2019s office. The\u00a0Bronze Applique of a Gorgon first appeared with antiquities trafficker Robert Hecht, who then sold it to the New York art gallery Fortuna Fine Arts, whose owners were arrested by the FBI in September 2020<\/a> after being indicted in federal court for fraud. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFortuna then falsely claimed that the\u00a0Gorgon\u00a0came from William Froelich, a name frequently used by Fortuna and other galleries in its false provenance,\u201d said the press release. Bronze Applique of a Gorgon was then sold to a private collector, who loaned it with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was seized this year. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese 29 extraordinary pieces were recovered thanks to the hard work of our prosecutors and analysts,\u201d District Attorney Bragg said in a press statement. \u201cThe impact of these significant trafficking networks are still felt in New York, and we will continue to work alongside our partners around the globe to return stolen objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe investigations were conducted by Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Senior Trial Counsel Matthew Bogdanos; Investigative Analysts Charlotte Looram and Michael Chapin; District Attorney Investigator John Paul Labbat; and Special Agents Robert Mancene and Robert Fromkin of Homeland Security Investigations. Investigative support was provided by Elena Vlachogianni and Vasiliki Papageorgiou of the Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Goods of Greece\u2019s Ministry of Culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Manhattan District Attorney\u2018s office recently announced the return of 29 antiquities to Greece, estimated to be worth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[546,75,547,84,83,548,9,24,63,549],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-art-crime","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-district-attorney","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metropolitan-museum-of-art","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-robin-symes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}