‘Stolen’ Ancient Art Seized From Home Of Philanthropist Michael Steinhardt
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Several pieces of ancient art were seized from the office and home of billionaire philanthropist Michael Steinhardt.
The art, worth a total of more than $1 million, are believed to have been looted from Greece and Italy, the New York Times reported Friday. Steinhardt, co-founder of the Birthright program and a major donor to Jewish and Israel causes, is an avid and long-time collector of art from ancient Greece.
The raids are part of a push by New York district attorney Cyrus Vance to return stolen antiquities found in New York City to their countries of origin.
In recent months Vance has overseen the return of three ancient statues to Lebanon, a mosaic from one of Caligula’s ships to Italy, and a second-century Buddhist sculpture to Pakistan, according to the Times.
Among the pieces reported seized from Steinhardt’s home and office are: a Greek oil vessel from the fifth century B.C., depicting a funeral scene with the figures of a woman and a youth, worth at least $380,000; Proto-Corinthian figures from the seventh century B.C., depicting an owl and a duck, together worth about $250,000; an Apulian terra-cotta flask in the shape of an African head from the fourth century B.C.; an Ionian sculpture of a ram’s head from the sixth century; and a vessel for oil or perfume, from the early fifth century. The ancient pieces were all bought in the last 12 years for a total cost of $1.1 million, according to the warrants, the New York Times reported.
Steinhardt could face charges of possession of stolen property, according to the newspaper.
In October, a piece discovered in Steinhardt’s apartment – a sixth-century B.C. marble torso of a man carrying a calf, worth about $4.5 million, was returned to Lebanon where it had been stolen from the Temple of Eshmun in Sidon.
The pieces had been purchased from collectors in Colorado who had purchased them from an antiquities dealer in London.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
