Our founder at the repatriation ceremony for the Bull’s Head in 2017
Today, the Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Cyrus Vance announced that Michael Steinhardt, hedge-fund pioneer and one of the world’s most prolific collectors of ancient art, surrendered 180 looted antiquities valued at $70 million. This unprecedented seizure is the result of a criminal investigation that began several years ago. Amineddoleh & Associates previously wrote about a looted Bull’s Head had been purchased by Steinhardt in 2010 for $700,000, who subsequently loaned it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After museum personnel raised concerns as to the provenance of the object, it came to light that the sculpture had been looted during the Lebanese Civil War. The Bull’s Head, as well as an ancient marble torso depicting a calf bearer, were both tied to the black market, seized by the DA’s Office, and subsequently repatriated. Both items had been extensively photographed during their excavation in 1967, and storage records placed them at a Lebanese warehouse before they were stolen in 1981. Notably, there was “not a single piece of paper” accounting for the provenance of the Bull’s Head between its disappearance and later sale at a London dealership in the 1990s.
Despite the presence of multiple red flags during the acquisition process, Steinhardt failed to prioritize due diligence when purchasing these objects. Most of the antiquities in his collection were trafficked during periods following civil unrest or armed conflict and depicted covered in dirt or other encrustations in photographs prior to their purchase. The seized objects span 11 countries and 12 criminal smuggling networks, and all had deficient provenance histories – or more troublingly, no information at all as to their origins – at the time of sale. It is incredulous that Steinhardt was unaware of his illegal acts. “For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe,” said District Attorney Vance. “His pursuit of ‘new’ additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers, and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection.”
In a major announcement, the DA’s Office reached an agreement to put an end to the legal process filed against Steinhardt, whereby all the antiquities formerly in his possession will be returned to their countries of origin rather than being held as evidence in a lengthy criminal procedure. Vance also indicated that his office is currently carrying out joint parallel investigations with foreign law enforcement, and this measure will protect the integrity of the process and potential witnesses. Most importantly, Steinhardt was given a lifetime ban on the purchase of antiquities, the first time such an extreme sanction has been imposed. This indicates the seriousness with which the DA’s Office views the illicit trafficking of antiquities and other cultural heritage objects and heralds more stringent oversight for private players in the New York art market.
The Steinhardt seizure represents a significant achievement for the Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (led by Matthew Bogdanos), which has recovered thousands of stolen cultural heritage objects collectively valued at over $200 million since its inception in 2017, and repatriated a total of 717 pieces to 14 nations over the past year.
Amineddoleh & Associates LLC has been watching this matter closely. Our founder, Leila A. Amineddoleh served as the cultural heritage law expert for a number of the warrants used to seize dozens of items from Steinhardt’s collection, including the Lebanese Bull’s Head. (We note that Leila has never been, and is not currently, employed by the Manhattan DA’s Office, but has instead served as an independent expert.)