Getty museum in LA to return ancient bronze head to Turkey

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has announced it is returning a looted ancient bronze head to Turkey.

Acquired in 1971, the bronze head of a young man had been in the antiquities collection at the Getty Villa Museum. It has been taken off view.

Timothy Potts, Getty museum director, said the decision to return the bronze head comes after “new information” provided by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, indicating that the object was illegally excavated.

Repatriating stolen and looted art

In a statement, the Getty said the repatriation is in accordance with its policy to return objects “to their country of origin or modern discovery when reliable information indicates that they were stolen or illegally excavated”.

The head – dated from somewhere between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. – is part of a life-size figure, the body of which has not been identified.

Some scholars have associated the head with the archaeological site of Bubon, located in the Burdur province of southwestern Turkey.

There were illicit excavations in Bubon in the late 1960s, with several ancient bronzes sold abroad.

Potts added, “We seek to continue building a constructive relationship with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and with our archaeological, conservation, curatorial, and other scholarly colleagues working in Türkiye, with whom we share a mission to advance the preservation of ancient cultural heritage.”

In 2022, the Getty returned a group of illegally excavated Orpheus sculptures (pictured above) to Italy. It later gave back four additional objects.

Images courtesy of the Getty