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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has used three search warrants to seize 27 artifacts from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“We have two repatriation ceremonies next week, one with Italy and one with Egypt. Fifty-eight objects will go back to Italy, 21 from the Met. Sixteen to Egypt, six from the Met,” a spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg told CNN.
The DA’s office did not reveal where the other 37 objects were seized from.
“It should be no secret to collectors, art museums and auction houses that they may be in possession of pieces from known traffickers that were illegally looted,” Mr. Bragg told CNN.
The warrants were executed over the last six months, and the looted items being repatriated are valued upwards of $13 million.
Eight of the items were confirmed to have come from antiquities trafficker Gianfranco Becchina, who has been convicted in Italy.
“The norms of collecting have changed significantly in recent decades, and The Met’s policies and procedures in this regard have been under constant review over the past 20 years,” the museum said in a statement to the New York Times.
The Met also noted that they were fully supportive of the DA’s office investigating their catalog.
Another warrant was issued Tuesday, this time for a stone sculpture of the Hindu goddess Matrika acquired in 1993, dated back to the 6th century.
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