The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond has returned 41 terracotta relief fragments valued around $400,000 to Turkey after an investigation led by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The works, acquired by the VMFA in the 1970s, were found to have been illegally taken from a Phrygian temple dating back to the 6th century B.C.E.

The museum purchased 34 of the reliefs from Summa Galleries in Beverly Hills, California, in 1978, and then received others as gifts from the Chicago-based antiquities dealer Harlan J. Berk as well as Summa Galleries a year later.

“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts takes seriously and responds to all restitution claims for works in our collection,” VMFA director and CEO Alex Nyerges said in a statement. “Based on the evidence shown to VMFA, we are convinced that we do not have clear title for these reliefs. We are therefore happy to be working with the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to return all of the polychrome terracotta fragments in question to Türkiye.”  

The VMFA received a restitution claim from the Antiques Trafficking Unit in early November and shared sales receipts, invoices, shipping and st...