Met Museum's Looted Artifacts Valuation Surpasses $95M After June Seizures

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned looted artifacts worth more than $95 million, following new seizures in June 2026. Since 2017, a total of 120 items valued between $20,000 and $26 million have been confiscated from the museum, all connected to smuggling operations and dealers with fake provenance. The museum's provenance research team, now comprising 12 members and headed by Lucian Simmons, the former restitution chief at Sotheby’s, works alongside the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Recent findings revealed that some artifacts arrived covered in dirt, indicating illegal excavation. Among the returned items are ancient sculptures and vessels from Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey, acquired between 1971 and 2001. The Met has independently conducted 18 restitutions since 2017 and helped return over 150 Cycladic antiquities from Leonard Stern's collection to Greece in 2022, although these remain on loan for 25 years. Simmons remarked that internal evaluations are complex and time-consuming, while Matthew Bogdanos, head of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, asserted that the seizures were self-explanatory.