U.S. hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt has surrendered $70 million of stolen antiquities and accepted a first-of-its-kind lifetime ban on buying antiquities to resolve a prison probe, Manhattan District Lawyer Cy Vance mentioned on Monday.
The antiquities will probably be returned to their rightful house owners in Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey. Regulation enforcement in these international locations assisted within the probe.
In accordance with a 142-page assertion of info, 138 of the antiquities got here from Greece, Israel or Italy, with Steinhardt as soon as acknowledging {that a} majority of things he purchased from one seller “didn’t have provenance.”
Among the many antiquities was a 4th century B.C. wrought stag’s head price $3.5 million that Steinhardt loaned in 1993 to the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.
The stag’s head had been “Present in Western Turkey,” in accordance with undated handwritten notes in Steinhardt’s data.
Vance mentioned his probe, begun in February 2017, discovered “compelling proof” that the 180 antiquities have been stolen from 11 international locations, with at the very least 171 passing by traffickers earlier than Steinhardt’s purchases.
“For many years, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious urge for food for plundered artifacts with out concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the items he purchased and offered, or the grievous cultural harm he wrought throughout the globe,” Vance mentioned in an announcement.
Steinhardt denied prison wrongdoing in resolving the matter, which ended a grand jury investigation into him.
Vance fashioned an antiquities trafficking bureau in December 2017. He leaves workplace after 12 years on the finish of the month.
(REUTERS)