The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) has filed a lawsuit against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over his office’s seizure of a $20 million bronze statue this summer. The work in question is a c. 150 BCE to 200 CE Roman or Hellenistic headless sculpture, simply titled “Draped male figure” on the museum’s website. In the lawsuit filed today, October 19, CMA is seeking a declaration that it is the rightful owner of the work.
The DA’s office issued a search warrant for the sculpture in mid-August as part of a broader investigation into artifacts allegedly looted from Turkey and trafficked through Manhattan, where the museum bought the statue for $1.85 million from the now-closed Edward H. Merrin Gallery in 1986. The sculpture was seized “in place,” meaning that although a New York judge authorized the search warrant, the work has yet to be physically removed from CMA. It is no longer on display.
“We are reviewing the museum’s filing in this matter and will respond in court papers,” press secretary for the DA’s Office Doug Cohen told Hyperallergic. He added that the authority has successfully recovered more than 4,600 trafficked antiquities from various institutions and individuals.
The subject of CMA’s headless statue and the work’s place of origin are at the heart of the dispute. In the lawsuit, the museum says that the grounds for seizure rest on the claim that the sculpture comes from Bubon, Turkey, a notorious hotbed for looting, and that the figure depicts Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
In an opinion for Hyperallergic last September, scholar Elizabeth Marlowe discussed this particular statue’s association with the Turkish site. Among other points, she references an empty pedestal there that bears the inscription “Marcus Aurelius.”
But CMA insists that the sculpture’s link to Bubon is “speculative” and based on a “complete absence” of scientific evidence. It also states that CMA consulted “experts who have cast significant doubt” on the subject’s identity as Marcus Aurelius, based on the robed dress and dissimilarities with other depictions of the emperor. The institution says the work more likely shows an Ancient Greek philosopher.
CMA’s original online description of the work, since edited, stated that its subject was “probably” the Roman emperor and that its origin was “Turkey, Bubon (?).” The current listing excludes mention of both.
“The Cleveland Museum of Art takes provenance issues very seriously, as is apparent both from our long track record of engagement around cultural property issues and the forthright way that works are interpreted in our galleries,” museum spokesperson Todd Mesek told Hyperallergic.
