Bull’s-Eye: Making Heads or Tails of the Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit

By Thaara S. Shankar and the Center for Art Law Team

In December of 2017, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. attended a repatriation ceremony in which three statues were returned to the Lebanese Republic. These three statues Torso E1912, the Calf Bearer, and the Bull’s Head were all stolen during the Lebanese Civil War, from 1975-1990; they subsequently ended up in private collections, and the Bull’s Head was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2010-2017). Historically, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has already recovered antiquities that value over $150 million, pointing to how central New York is in illicit antiquity dealings. 

However, during the ceremony, Vance announced the creation of the new Antiquities Trafficking Unit, headed by Matthew Bogdanos. According to The Art Newspaper’s March Issue, earlier in the year Bogdanos, a world-renowned expert in investigating instances of cultural heritage looting, had about forty related open cases and the new Unit would proceed to work with foreign governments as well as Homeland Security to resolve these and new ownership disputes.