The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office coordinated the return of two antiquities looted from Iraq. Repatriation is part of a broader restitution effort prosecuted by District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Antiquity Trafficking Unit (ATU), which has facilitated the recovery of more than 800 items since 2021.
Two ancient stone sculptures, a Mesopotamian limestone elephant and a Sumerian alabaster bull, will be returned to Iraq, Bragg’s office says announcement last week. The items were stolen from Iraq during the Gulf War and smuggled to New York. They are valued at $275,000 in total and hail from the ancient kingdom of Uruk (or today Warka), one of the oldest known civilizations in the world. A repatriation ceremony was held at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, DC.
Authorities seized the bull figurine from Shelby White, investor, art collector and board member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The extensive collection she amassed with her late husband, Leon Levy, has come under scrutiny for including many artifacts of uncertain provenance. The District Attorney’s investigation into the collection has already resulted in the seizure of 89 stolen antiques valued at over $69 million and hailing from ten different countries. White has been cooperating with investigators, according to the district attorney’s announcement.
The ancient limestone sculpture of an elephant which was recently returned to the Iraqi authorities Iraqi Embassy in Washington
The limestone elephant was seized from a storage unit belonging to a convicted trafficker Robin Symewhere law enforcement officials believe he had been concealed since 1999.
“Once again we see historic and priceless antiquities hidden from the public and held by traffickers and looters,” Bragg said in a statement. “We will not allow New York to be a haven for stolen cultural objects.”
According to historians, the Sumerian bull was probably offered as a religious offering to the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, associated with love, war and fertility, instead of an animal sacrifice. The origins and destination of the elephant figurine are more mysterious; while there were elephants in Mesopotamia, they were very rarely depicted in art, making this statue particularly rare.
“I am grateful for the work of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in its efforts to repatriate these valuable historical antiquities to Iraq,” said Salwan Sinjari, Iraqi diplomat to the United States. “These coins belong to Iraq – and belong to Iraq – and now they will help the people of Iraq to better understand and appreciate our own history and culture with this connection to the past.”
