A bronze statue believed to depict Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, has been returned to Türkiye, more than sixty years after it was illegally removed from the ancient city of Boubon in the southwestern province of Burdur.
The nearly two-meter statue had been on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art since the 1980s. Turkish officials long asserted it had been looted from Boubon’s Roman-era sanctuary, the Sebasteion, and trafficked abroad.
Following a joint investigation with US authorities and months of scientific testing, the museum agreed earlier this year to relinquish the sculpture and drop its legal challenge.
“This is a historic achievement,” said Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announcing the statue’s arrival in Ankara.
“We were right, we were determined, we were patient—and we won. Marcus Aurelius has returned to the land where he belongs.”
The case was bolstered by extensive forensic and legal evidence.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit supported Türkiye’s claim, particularly citing witness testimonies from 1967 about the illicit excavation, the exact match of the statue’s foot measurements to the negative imprints on its base, and the discovery of a similar sandal pattern during excavations at the ancient city of Kybra.
This compelling evidence led to the seizure of the statue from the Cleveland Museum.
The museum’s legal opposition to the repatriation prompted investigators to use a statue of Valerianus, seized in a 1967 operation and still held at the Burdur Museum, as a critical reference piece.
Soil samples were taken both from inside the Valerianus statue and the Marcus Aurelius statue to determine whether they had been preserved in the same archaeological environment.
According to Zeynep Boz, head of the Ministry’s Department for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property, the soil inside the statue had hardened, and collecting a sample was extremely difficult.
“Our restorers and conservators put in great effort. This was our last chance. We scraped out the reference soil from inside the statue with our fingernails,” she said.
“Under the supervision of international experts, and using acid-free paper, we completed the sampling process.”
Laboratory tests confirmed that both statues contained soil with identical compositions, scientifically proving that they originated from the Boubon Ancient City.
Milestone in heritage protection
The Cleveland Museum initially challenged the seizure in court but withdrew its lawsuit after the analysis confirmed the statue’s Anatolian origin.
US agencies, including the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations, supported Türkiye’s claim and facilitated the repatriation.
The operation is being hailed as one of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s most significant milestones in its ongoing fight against antiquities trafficking.
In recent years, Türkiye has recovered several other statues from Boubon, including figures believed to represent Lucius Verus, Caracalla, and Septimius Severus.
Officials say the Marcus Aurelius statue will be the centerpiece of a new exhibition in Ankara, details of which are expected to be announced in the coming days.
