Getty Museum returns artifact to Türkiye

ISTANBUL

A rare bronze couch dating back to 530 B.C., which was removed from a grave near the western province of Manisa during illegal excavations and smuggled abroad, has been returned to Türkiye by the J. Paul Getty Museum in the U.S. The number of artifacts brought to the country this year has reached 36.

Discussions about the artifact’s return began after research conducted by Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Getty confirmed that its provenance record had been falsified by a former owner.

The museum’s previous records for the artifact, standing on four legs, stated that it had passed through various European collections between the 1920s and early 1980s, when it was sold to the museum by a Swiss dealer.

Researchers found that the piece was illegally excavated in the early 1980s from a funerary site in the region of the western province of Manisa. According to the museum, remnants of linen still attached to the bronze bed were found by researchers to match similar fabrics, wood and bronze materials preserved within the tomb site, which was uncovered by Turkish archaeologists.

Timothy Potts, the director of the Getty Museum, said the return of the piece marks the end of a long-running effort between American and Turkish scholars to investigate the artifact’s origins and legal title.

The bronze “couch,” also referred to as a burial monument, is the latest artifact returned by the museum to Türkiye, following the repatriation of a bronze sculpture of a male head in April.

Potts suggested that the latest negotiation signals progress in addressing restitution claims with the country, whose government has been active in seeking the return of objects with ties to Türkiye’s cultural sites.

“We seek to continue building a constructive relationship with the Turkish Ministry of Culture,” Potts said.

In a statement, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Gökhan Yazgı praised the museum’s cooperation in “rectifying past actions” that led to the artifact’s trafficking abroad.

He emphasized that the return of the work not only means the recovery of a cultural asset, but also an important victory against cultural heritage smuggling.