Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum has returned three ancient artifacts to Greece, aiming to turn what could be a blot on its reputation into an opportunity to deepen its international educational exchanges.
The more than century-old museum, whose collection includes more than 25,000 pieces from across the ancient world, said the repatriation came after its provenance researchers spent months confirming evidence provided by the Greek government that the items were either looted or illicitly excavated before coming into its possession.
The items include a marble statue of a muse from the second century BCE, a nearly 3,500-year-old Minoan larnax (bathtub) from Crete and the marble sculpture of a seated figure estimated to have been created between 350 and 325 BCE.
The museum held a Jan. 22 press conference announcing the return of the items during a visit of Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni.
Ms. Mendoni noted that these particular items, which hail from three distinct regions, began their journey home 15 years ago, when the Greek Ministry of Culture started compiling evidence, from Polaroid photos to court documents, that they should have never left Greek soil.
While an official request for repatriation was lodged in 2021, Ms. Mendoni credited “sincere dialogue” and a few key actors with bringing about their return.
For one, Greek Consul Theodoros Dimopoulos began pressing the issue with Emory after arriving in his posting in late 2020. Then, in August 2022, the museum appointed Henry S. Kim as its new executive director, replacing Bonnie Speed, who left the previous year after 18 years at the helm.
“Director Henry Kim did not content himself with a formal exchange of letters, but traveled to Athens in order to discuss the issue in person with directorate officials and to evaluate the arguments of the Greek side,” Ms. Mendoni said. “And it was he who recognized the weight of the documentary evidence and with courage and highest scientific and professional integrity recommended to the Emory University Board of Trustees that these three items returned when they belong: to Greece.”
After he joined the museum’s leadership, Dr. Kim said Mr. Dimopoulos, the consul, was the one who restarted the discussion, a nod to the importance of engaged diplomacy.
“In truth, it was really just having that opening, and I think that’s really what changed things tremendously,” said Dr. Kim, an expert on Greek coins who previously served as founding director of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. “Being able to make this a personal rather than simply an impersonal process — that makes a huge difference in terms of developing outcomes.”
“Being able to make this a personal rather than simply an impersonal process — that makes a huge difference in terms of developing outcomes.”
Henry S. Kim
Once Emory researchers had a chance to interact with the culture ministry in Greece after two years of gathering and weighing evidence, they quickly came to a joint decision, he said.
“I think each side had developed their hypotheses, and it was a very important thing to be able to work with one another to understand what was the most likely history behind each one of these objects. Now from that point on, I have to say that agreement to return the objects was instantaneous,” Dr. Kim added.
Provenance researcher Annie Shanley, who runs the “Den of Antiquity” blog to report on the Carlos Museum’s repatriation efforts, agreed that personal interactions with colleagues around the world were essential to gaining clarity into what can be murky, complex investigations.
“I’m still going to spend that quality time in the library, and you need that sort of groundwork, but working with the Greek Ministry of Culture really highlighted that there is no substitute to reaching out to your colleagues and asking for assistance to go over the evidence with you,” said Dr. Shanley, who joined the Carlos in 2014.
Dr. Kim said the museum would replicate the approach in the future, building ties with ministries of culture in other countries to facilitate more productive discussions.
At the press conference, Ms. Mendoni joined Ravi Bellamkonda, Emory provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, in signing an agreement in a “spirit of goodwill” that he said would lead to loans of artifacts from museums in Greece and create opportunities for students and faculty to participate in excavations. Already, Emory researchers and students have been involved in digs at Samothrace and on the Agora in Athens.
The return of the Greek items comes after similar repatriations to Italy and Iraq in 2023, and as the Carlos Museum’s past procurement practices have been called into question.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported (paywall) in November that its own investigation found evidence of more than 500 items in the museum’s collections that had passed through the hands of people linked to illicit antiquities trade.
The Greek government, and Ms. Mendoni herself, have been on a decades-long campaign to persuade museums to revisit the provenance of their collections, arguing that circulating stolen items, even if unintentionally, encourages bad actors who pillage cultural assets for profit.
The highest-profile example is the ongoing push to recover so-called Elgin Marbles, sections from the Parthenon’s frieze shipped home by British aristocrat Lord Elgin from Ottoman-ruled Greece in the early 1800s. Talks on their return from their current home at the British Museum have been held since 1983, with no breakthroughs yet despite a renewed dialogue starting in 2021.
Ms. Mendoni said she hoped other museums would follow the Carlos’s lead, noting that rectifying past wrongs is vital, especially in museums attached to institutes of higher learning.
Not only do such agreements raise awareness of the risks of smuggling, but they also teach young scientists to adhere to the highest ethical standards and to have “respect for the cultural inheritance of each country, which are an integral part of its identity and dignity.”
Dr. Shanley added that the museum is committed to transparency as it re-evaluates its collection in light of new evidence and developments in the field of provenance research.
“As we move forward in evaluating our collection (and) discovering new stories about our objects — the good, the bad and the ugly — we will be making these stories known to the public and discussing these stories in our gallery.”
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Learn more about the agreement between the Carlos Museum and the Greek Ministry of Culture.
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