Amphora returned to Turkey from US

ISTANBUL

Two amphoras, which were from a sunken ship in Bodrum and had been taken to the US in 1965, were returned to Turkey by a US citizen, Kyoko Schmidt.

Turkey has reunited with more artifacts taken from the country, after U.S.-based Kyoko Schmidt returned two amphoras that his wife had taken to the U.S. in 1965. The amphoras were from a sunken ship in Bodrum, according to a written statement issued by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

The move comes after U.S. citizen Rick O’Ryan came to the Washington Culture and Promotion Office in February to say he was impressed by Turkey’s recent efforts to repatriate smuggled artifacts, and he wanted to give back an 8th century amphora that his father had brought from Turkey in the 1950s.

Speaking about the issue, Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik said protecting the cultural inheritance of civilizations on Turkish land was a priority for his ministry.

“There are important developments about the return of our smuggled artifacts every other day. Schmidt returned two amphoras that his wife took from Turkey in 1965. His sensitivity made us very pleased,” he said.

In this return process, Schmidt came to the Washington Embassy and said he wanted to return two amphoras, unearthed from a sunken ship in Bodrum. Then he delivered the artifacts to the embassy.

He said he was closely followed touristic and cultural developments in Turkey and decided to give the amphoras after reading the news about O’Ryan, who did the same thing.

Examinations showed that the amphoras are original.

According to experts, one of them dates back 5th and 4th century B.C. and looks like Mende amphoras. The amphoras have now been delivered to Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.