The search for stolen antiquities has led New York authorities to seize a bronze bust from a Massachusetts art museum. The bust, believed to depict the daughter of an ancient Roman emperor, is the latest item to be seized in an ongoing investigation into a smuggling network that trafficked objects looted from Bubon, Turkey. Known as “Portrait of a Lady,” the bust was acquired by the Worcester Art Museum in 1966. This seizure follows the recent confiscation of a statue believed to portray the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius from a museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Worcester Art Museum has confirmed that the seized bust, now missing from their website, dates back to AD 160 to 180. It is believed to portray either a daughter of Marcus Aurelius or another Roman emperor, Septimius Severus. The museum acquired the bust nearly sixty years ago with limited information about its history. The museum’s director, Matthias Waschek, expressed gratitude for the new information and emphasized the museum’s commitment to ethical collection management.
Marcus Aurelius, who ruled as Roman emperor from AD 161 to 180, was a renowned Stoic philosopher whose “Meditations” have been studied for centuries. Septimius Severus, on the other hand, reigned from AD 193 to 211 and aimed to transform the government into a military monarchy. Claims from Turkey about looted objects from Bubon were first raised in 2012 when the country listed nearly twenty items from the Cleveland museum’s collection. At that time, the museum denied the claims due to lack of hard evidence provided by Turkey. (Read more about it here.)
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