Troy treasures to be displayed in new museum

ÖMER ERBİL

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has decided to transfer historical Troy artifacts to the Troy Museum, which is set to open in the northwestern province of Çanakkale in August. A large number of Troy artifacts will therefore be transferred from four museums in Turkey to the new museum. 

The rest of the golden artifacts, which were smuggled out of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum in 1873 by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, will be taken to the new museum along with the Boğazköy cuneiform tablet. Also Homer’s book “Iliad” from the Topkapı Palace, 24 pieces of treasure that were returned from the U.S. in 2012 to Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, a statue of Homer, and five coins at the İzmir Archaeology Museum will also be displayed in the Troy Museum. 

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum did not want to give original artifacts, which have been kept at its collection since the museum’s establishment in the 1880s. The Topkapı Museum also suggested only giving a facsimile of an artifact in the museum’s library. The Culture Ministry rejected both demands and said the original artifacts should be given to the new museum in order to help bring back more Troy artifacts from abroad. 

Culture and Tourism Ministry Numan Kurtulmuş recently stressed the importance of the opening of the Troy Museum for the return of the Troy artifacts previously smuggled abroad. 

“Artifacts are most beautiful in their original place. I felt sorry when I saw the Troy artifacts in the Pushkin Museum in Russia. We return all artifacts that we seize within our borders. We will transfer the Troy artifacts to the new museum and then will fight for the return of other smuggled artifacts,” Kurtulmuş said.