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11 Cardozo J. Int'l & Comp. L. 409 (2003-2004)
Acquisition and Deacquisition of Museum Collections and the Fiduciary Obligations of Museums to the Public

handle is hein.journals/cjic11 and id is 419 raw text is: ACQUISITION AND DEACQUISITION OF MUSEUM COLLECTIONS AND THE FIDUCIARY OBLIGATIONS OF MUSEUMS TO THE PUBLIC Patty Gerstenblith* In 1993, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York agreed to return to the Republic of Turkey the fabled Lydian Hoard of late 6th century B.C. antiquities, a collection of over 360 objects, including fragments of wall paintings, marble sphinxes, gold, silver and bronze vessels, and gold, silver and glass jewelry.' The origin of the Hoard was in a series of tombs from the West- Central part of Turkey, in the area of Gtire and U~ak, that were looted in the mid-1960s. The objects were smuggled out of Turkey, passed through the hands of New York antiquities dealers, and purchased by the Met between 1966 and 1970. Because of the Met's fears of discovery, the acquisition of this collection was not announced and most of the objects remained in storage in the base- ment, unavailable to scholars and the public. In 1984, several of the vessels were put on display but were mislabeled as East Greek in origin, to confuse any who would attempt to search out the collection's true origin.2 Nonetheless, this display was sufficient to notify Turkish offi- cials and archaeologists who knew of the tomb robberies and had been searching for the objects that had been looted. After negotia- * Professor, DePaul University College of Law. I want to thank Katherine Ivancevich for her assistance in the research and preparation of this article. I also want to thank Cardozo School of Law for inviting me to participate in the symposium at which this paper was first presented. 1 Lawrence M. Kaye & Carla T. Main, The Saga of the Lydian Hoard Antiquities: From Ulak to New York and Back and Some Related Observations on the Law of Cultural Repatriation, in ANTiQUITIES TRADE OR BETRAYED: LEGAL, ETHICAL AND CONSERVA- TION ISSUES 150 (Kathryn W. Tubb ed., 1995); ILKNUR OZGEN & JEAN OZTCRK, HERI- TAGE RECOVERED: THE LYDIAN TREASURE (1996). 2 THOMAS HOVING, MAKING THE MUMMIES DANCE 217 (1994). Hoving also states that the museum knew at the time it purchased the Hoard that the collection had been illegally excavated and that a curator of the museum had documented the original loca- tions of the objects in the field. Id. Nonetheless, the museum would wait for the Turkish government to come up with the same proof independently before the museum would return the objects. As it turned out, it took several years of litigation and negotiation for the museum to agree to the restitution.

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