The Antiquities Trading Unit (ATU) of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said on Oct. 10 that it had effected the return of 29 antiquities collectively valued at $3 million to the people of Greece. This followed an Oct. 3 repatriation ceremony at the Greek Consul General of New York at 69 E. 79th St.
The objects were seized pursuant to ongoing investigations into multiple looting and trafficking networks, including those run by convicted art traffickers Robin Symes and Eugene Alexander. These objects were smuggled into the United States and laundered by dealers and collectors through false provenances, exhibitions, and museum donations.
Robin Symes was a high-profile British art dealer specializing in Greek and Roman antiquities, some of which were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; his former partner, and lover, Greek shipping heir Christo Michaelides, died in 1999. Symes himself did some jail time in Europe and died in 2025.
Just this past August, Eugene Alexander, a dual Bulgarian and American citizen, was among the convicted art traffickers targeted. resulting in the return of antiquities to Spain, Italy, and Hungary. In December 2021, some Alexander-sourced antiquities were surrendered to then Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance by billionaire investor and art collector Michael Steinhardt.
“These 29 extraordinary pieces were recovered thanks to the hard work of our prosecutors and analysts,” said Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg. “The impact of these significant trafficking networks is still felt in New York, and we will continue to work alongside our partners around the globe to return stolen objects.”
“Each repatriation of Greek antiquities is a profoundly important event,” offered that country’s Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni. “Greece is now internationally recognized as a country that has placed the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural heritage at the forefront of its agenda—an issue directly linked to organized crime and terrorism.”
Among the items being repatriated:
Bronze Foot in the Form of a Sphinx, dating to roughly 600 B.C.E. and, despite its name, likely depicts a siren. The Bronze Foot first appeared in the collection of a trafficker who then sold it to Robin Symes, who sold to a private collector, who donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000.
Bronze Applique of a Gorgon, from the 6th century B.C.E., depicts a running mythological Gorgon and would originally have been attached to a bronze vessel. The Gorgon first appeared with antiquities trafficker Robert Hecht, who then sold it to Fortuna Fine Arts, a now-defunct UES gallery currently under indictment in federal court for fraud. Fortuna then falsely claimed that the Gorgon came from “William Froelich,” a name frequently used by Fortuna and other galleries in its false provenance. Thereafter, the Gorgon was sold to a private collector who placed the antiquity on loan at the Met.
The ATU seized both the Bronze Foot and the Gorgon from the Met in 2025.
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