An Ancient Statue of a Roman Emperor Will Finally Be Reunited With Its Head

The head of an ancient bronze statue depicting a Roman emperor will soon be reunited with its torso in Turkey. The pieces originated in Bubon, a Turkish site known for its links to the Roman Empire—and the extensive looting that occurred there in the 20th century.

The statue is thought to depict Septimius Severus, who ruled from 193 to 211 C.E. It had likely been part of a larger collection of sculptures from a shrine in Bubon where Roman emperors were worshipped as gods.

When exactly the statue’s head and torso were separated isn’t known, but experts now think that both pieces were smuggled out of the country in the 1960s. The head made its way to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen, which knew only that the piece came from Asia Minor and dated to between 195 and 211 C.E.

The museum had purchased the piece from Robert Hecht, an American dealer “who would become famous—and later infamous—as one of the world’s great dealers of antiquities, both looted and legitimate,” per the New York Times’ Graham Bowley.

As Liz Marlowe, an art historian at Colgate University, tells NPR’s Elizabeth Blair, “[Hecht] realized there was a lot of money to be made in connecting … the guys in the countryside in Italy and Greece and Turkey with the art dealers.”

In 1979, a curator at the Glyptotek argued that the two pieces were linked, and the torso was even loaned to the Copenhagen museum so they could be displayed together. Many years later, the torso, which had been in a private American collection, ended up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

But last year, investigators announced that the piece had been looted from Bubon, and the artwork was seized from the New York museum and returned to Turkey. Since then, the Turkish government has also been on a mission to recover the statue’s severed head from Denmark.

At first, officials in Copenhagen seemed hesitant.

“I’m not saying that they don’t belong together,” Rune Frederiksen, the Glyptotek’s director of collections, told Agence France-Presse in 2023. “I’m just saying that we are not as sure as we perhaps were 25-30 years ago.”

The museum launched an official investigation into the piece last summer. After experts confirmed that it had likely been looted, officials decided to return it to Turkey.

“Exceptionally strong arguments and scientific documentation are required to separate a work from the museum’s collection,” says Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen, the Glyptotek’s director, in a statement from the museum. “In the case of this object, both criteria were present.”

Turkish officials say they are excited to see the two items reunited in their home country.

“This development sets another precedent for institutions and collectors all over the world, including in Denmark, that all artifacts acquired with a shady provenance should be returned to their rightful owners,” says Hakan Tekin, Turkey’s ambassador to Denmark, in the statement. “Glyptotek has done the right thing, and we celebrate their decision.”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.