The Metropolitan Museum of Art is returning a bronze griffin’s head from the seventh century BC to Greece after it was found to have been stolen from a museum there in the 1930s.
The cast-bronze sculpture, which has been on display at the entrance to the Met’s Greek and Roman galleries since 1999, was previously in the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. Researchers in New York and Greece determined “that it illegitimately left” that museum, according to a Met announcement. It was eventually acquired by the collector and Met trustee Walter C. Baker, who donated it to the museum on his death in 1971.
The bronze had been in the collection and on public display since 1972. Such ornaments often decorated the rims of bronze cauldrons that were offered as votive gifts in ancient Greek sanctuaries from the sixth century BC to the eight century BC. Following its repatriation, the griffin will return to the Met next year for a special exhibition.
“We are grateful for our long-standing partnership with the Greek government, and look forward to continued engagement and opportunities for cultural exchange,” Max Hollein, the Met’s director and chief executive, said in a statement. “We deeply appreciate that the ministry supports the upcoming loan of the griffin—as well as other significant works of art—to the Met, as we pursue our shared commitment to fostering knowledge and appreciation of Greek art and culture among our millions of yearly visitors.”
The Met’s curator in charge Séan Hemingway (left) and director and chief executive Max Hollein (centre), with Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni (right) during a repatriation ceremony at the museum on 24 February Photo: Paula Lobo
The bronze was discovered in the bed of the Kladeos River in Olympia, in southwestern Greece, in 1914. The curator of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia then put it on display in the museum’s library, which it disappeared from sometime in the 1930s. It next surfaced in 1936, when the dealer and collector Joseph Brummer bought it from an antique dealer in Athens in 1936. Brummer then sold it to Baker in New York in 1948.
According to The New York Times, questions about the object’s provenance had been raised in 2018. Research intensified after the Met hired Sotheby’s veteran Lucian Simmons last year to lead the museum’s internal provenance research team. That team has since nearly doubled in size, from six employees to 11.
Officials from Greece, including culture minister Lina Mendoni, visited the Met on Monday for a repatriation ceremony for the griffin head. They were back at the museum on Tuesday for a panel about the museum’s collaboration with Greek authorities with regards to the collection of Leonard N. Stern. In 2022, Stern gifted his collection of ancient Cycladic art to Greece, and under the terms of a 25-year agreement a rotating display of the antiquities will remain on view at the Met.
A grave relief from the late 4th century BCE or early 3rd century BCE, previously in the possession of late trafficker Robert Symes, has been returned to Greek authorities Courtesy the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
Also on Tuesday, Greek officials attended a ceremony at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to mark the return of 11 looted antiquities collectively valued at nearly $1m. One of the items, an elaborately carved bas-relief grave panel from between the late fourth century BC and early third century BC, was previously in the possession of the late antiquities trafficker Robin Symes. It was seized by the office’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) earlier this year. To date, the ATU has seized 121 objects worth more than $56m that were allegedly trafficked by Symes.
