Stolen priest statue recovered in Ankara after seven years

ANKARA

The Ankara police have recovered a sixth-century statue depicting a priest during an inspection in the capital seven years after the artwork was stolen from a museum garden in the southwestern province of Isparta.

Law enforcement officers stationed at a checkpoint in the Gölbaşı district stopped a vehicle carrying three individuals and conducted a search last week, local media reported on Dec. 24.

Inside the car, they discovered the 70-centimeter-tall artifact, which was identified as the 1,500-year-old statue that vanished in 2017 from Isparta’s Yalvaç district.

With the historical relic seized by the police, the court arrested three suspects inside the car over the violation of Turkish law on the protection of cultural and natural assets.

In their preliminary statements before the court, the suspects denied involvement in illicit antiquities trafficking. Mustafa Küçük testified that he made a living through the trade of fertilizers and acids. He recounted a friend offered him the statue as a wedding gift for his son.

“My friend, Nuh, asked for no compensation and told me I could either sell the statue or hand it over to a museum if unable to find a buyer,” Küçük explained.

“I accepted his proposition. However, upon conducting online research, I discovered that the statue was an ancient artifact that had been reported stolen," he said.

“I approached a few acquaintances involved in treasure hunting to explore its sale, but they informed me it would not be possible. Thus, I decided to surrender it to the Ankara Museum,” he added.

Remarkably, this was not the statue’s first brush with theft. On Dec. 31, 2010, the same artifact was recovered when authorities intercepted four individuals from the central province of Nevşehir attempting to sell it as an illicit antiquity in Isparta.