MFA Boston Returns Necklace Flagged by Scholars to Turkey

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has repatriated a necklace to Turkey after scholars told museum staff that elements of the artifact were likely looted from an ancient tomb illegally excavated in the 1970s.

Parts of the disassembled 2,700-year-old gold and carnelian necklace, which has been on display at the MFA for more than forty years after it was acquired, were believed by researchers to have been taken out of Turkey after an illicit excavation that took place in 1976.

The necklace is believed to have been strung together and sold privately to the museum by a London dealer in 1982.

Prior to its return, an outside researcher contacted the museum about the necklace’s suspect provenance record, comparing its similarities to other beads and metallic elements of ancient jewelry excavated from a site in the province of Manisa located in Western Turkey.

According to Victoria Reed, the MFA’s Sadler Curator for Provenance, some beads from the looted site that were used as visual references by scholars to link the MFA necklace to it never left the country. They were instead placed in the collection of a local archaeological museum.

The museum’s internal staff conducted its own review of the object’s ownership record to confirm the outside research.

In a statement announcing the artifact’s return, Reed said, “It’s our responsibility to ensure that we are not holding onto objects that were unlawfully acquired.”

Representatives from Turkey’s government attended a repatriation ceremony at the Turkish consulate in Boston to retrieve the necklace earlier this week, where they signed a memorandum marking the occasion.

The museum did not disclose the date it first contacted Turkish officials to begin the repatriation.