A famous collector of works of art, billionaire and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, has agreed to return 180 works and antiquities – including Greek ones – that have been stolen from many countries in recent decades, New York court officials have announced.
The announcement of the New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance, the result of many years of investigations, means that the 80-year-old tycoon will not be prosecuted and will not be tried at the moment. However, he will be banned, for life, from acquiring antiquities even from the legal purchase of works of art.
In his statement, Vance denounced Michael Steinhard’s “decades-old insatiable appetite for stolen items, without caring about the legality of his actions, the authenticity of the items he bought and sold, or the seriousness of the cultural damage.” which brought about the whole world “. The prosecutor accused the New York collector, whose fortune is estimated at $ 1.2 billion, of violating “no geographical or moral barriers” and “relying on antiquities traffickers, bosses of organized crime, money laundering and money laundering.” gravediggers, to increase his collections “.
In recent years, Seinhardt’s office and apartment on 5th Manhattan Avenue have been searched by Attorney General Vance, who has made the return of stolen works a priority.
Steinhardt, who made a fortune thanks to a for-profit fund, is a well-known lover of Greek antiquities and had given his name to a room in the Metropolitan Museum.
According to Vance, the 180 works of art will be returned to their rightful owners in 11 countries as soon as possible. Among them is an ancient Greek rite with a deer head dating from 400 BC, worth $ 3.5 million and a shrine dating back to 1400-1200 BC. worth a million dollars.
The value of all the projects is estimated at $ 70 million.
The prosecutor seems to have ruled out a Steinhardt trial, saying it would be better to return the items quickly “instead of keeping them for years as evidence”.
“The agreement stipulates that Steinhardt will be banned from buying antiquities for life,” he concluded.
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