Art Repatriation: Looted Greek Goddess Statue Returned to Libya

Art Repatriation: Looted Greek Goddess Statue Returned to Libya

In light of the far-reaching activism for the repatriation of looted artworks and artifacts in Europe and North America to their source countries, a two-thousand-year-old statue of a Greek goddess has been returned to Libya, North Africa. Its repatriation was formally confirmed by the Libyan embassy in London on Monday.

The rare sculpture believed to depict Persephone, the Greek goddess queen of the underworld and wife of Hades, was looted from Libya in 2011. 

When in 2013 the sculpture surfaced at London’s Heathrow Airport in the hands of a dealer seeking entry into the English capital, an investigation that involved specialists at the British Museum, custom officials at the airport, Libyan and British experts was able to ascertain the sculpture’s true origin and piece together its illegal journey thousands of ocean miles away.

It was projected that the marble sculpture was likely illegally excavated from the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Cyrene, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in eastern Libya, a region that has increasingly been threatened by plunder and real estate speculation. 

By 2015, a team of experts from the British Museum and British diplomatic officials, working with their counterparts from Libya, presented evidence backing the artifact’s origins, noting that its fresh surface is characteristic of marble that could have only been recently excavated. Their submission was enough to convince the judge who ruled that the statue belonged to Libya, and thus, discussions with the Libyan Embassy in London ensued to coordinate its return.

And as the process to eventually get the statue back to Libya lingered in the years after the judgment, the statue has been stored in a basement at the British Museum. However, with Monday’s announcement by the Libyan Embassy, the statue’s protracted stay overseas is officially over.

In a statement, British Museum director Hartwig Fischer said the case was a “good example of the benefits of all parties working together to combat looting and protect cultural heritage.”

Although the statue of the goddess carrying a small doll, possibly a votive offering, and flaunting snake-adorned wrists dates back to the 2nd century BCE, the epitaphic sculpture is in an impressive shape. This is even more remarkable when you consider that more than half of the about a hundred similar three-quarter-length statues that have also been discovered in Cyrene, only survive as heads.

This notable feat by the Persephone sculpture was highlighted for commentary by British Museum curator Peter Higgs who praised the uniqueness of the figure’s impeccably conserved face. 

“It is stunning,” he said. “It is a beautiful, three-quarter-length statue, very well preserved with just a few fingers missing. It is technically brilliant in the way it has been carved, with very sharp details, and the face is very well preserved considering many Greek statues have lost noses.”

“It is just lovely to be part of a story which has a happy ending,” added Higgs. “It will go back to Libya and stand in one of its museums as a star piece, it is a lovely feeling to be part of that.”

The historical sculpture had been listed among “the rarest of Cyrenaican funerary statues” by the British Museum, and the museum has been instrumental to the process and agitation to return the artifact to Libya.

Many critics are now watching to see if the museum will also look inward and repatriate the massive holdings of looted cultural artifacts in its coffers, especially as clamor over the looted Benin bronzes which the museum holds the largest collection of. Germany has recently set a starting date of 2022 to return their share of the Nigerian artifacts that were looted by British troops in 1897 when they invaded the old Benin Kingdom.

Looting art is never right. To appreciate a country’s indigenous art, the best method is to engage in a fair and equitable purchase or lease from the rightful owner. Aworanka, the leading online aggregator for contemporary African art has made this process seamless for lovers and collectors of African art. All you need are your smartphone or laptop and your credit card or internet payment platform, and voila! You have your beloved African artworks with a certificate that authenticates your legal purchase of them.

All comments

Leave a Reply