The head of an ancient bronze statue depicting a Roman emperor is set to be reunited with its torso in Turkey after years of being separated. The pieces are believed to have originated from Bubon, a Turkish site known for its ties to the Roman Empire and the rampant looting that took place there in the 20th century.
Experts believe that the statue represents Septimius Severus, a Roman emperor who ruled from 193 to 211 C.E. It is believed that the statue was once part of a larger collection of sculptures from a shrine in Bubon where Roman emperors were worshipped as divine figures.
The exact timeline of when the statue’s head and torso were separated remains unknown, but it is believed that both pieces were smuggled out of Turkey in the 1960s. The head eventually made its way to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen, where it was acquired from American dealer Robert Hecht, a prominent figure in the antiquities trade.
In 1979, a curator at the Glyptotek proposed that the head and torso were originally part of the same statue, and the torso was loaned to the museum for a joint display. However, the torso later ended up in a private American collection and eventually made its way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Last year, it was revealed that the torso had been looted from Bubon, leading to its seizure and return to Turkey. Since then, Turkish authorities have been working to repatriate the statue’s head from Denmark.
Initially, the Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen expressed reluctance to part with the statue’s head. However, after conducting an official investigation and confirming that the piece had likely been looted, the museum decided to return it to Turkey.
The director of the Glyptotek, Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen, emphasized the museum’s commitment to ethical practices in a statement, stating that “Exceptionally strong arguments and scientific documentation are required to separate a work from the museum’s collection.” In this case, both criteria were met, leading to the decision to return the head to Turkey.
Turkish officials have expressed their excitement at the prospect of reuniting the two pieces in their home country. Hakan Tekin, Turkey’s ambassador to Denmark, highlighted the significance of this development in sending a message to institutions and collectors worldwide about the importance of returning artifacts with questionable provenance to their rightful owners.
The reunion of the statue’s head and torso in Turkey serves as a reminder of the importance of preserving cultural heritage and addressing the issue of looted antiquities in the art world.
