1,900 year-old Roman 'battle spoils' recovered from robbers in Jerusalem
By Owen Jarus
By Owen Jarus
published 1 day ago
Tomb robbers had dug up the cache in a tunnel complex.
Police in Jerusalem seized a hoard of stolen antiquities that date to a 1,900-year-old Jewish rebellion against the Romans. The cache had been dug up by tomb robbers from a tunnel complex.
The hoard included hundreds of coins, incense burners and a number of ceramics with decorations on them, including a jug that has a carving of a reclining figure holding a jug of wine. Researchers believe that during the Bar Kokhba revolt (A.D. 132-135), Jewish rebels captured the items from Roman soldiers and stored them in a tunnel complex where modern-day robbers found them, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement released on their Facebook page on Wednesday (Dec. 15).
Inspectors from the Robbery Prevention Unit examine the artifacts seized in Jerusalem. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
Here, a jug that would have held wine some 1,900 years ago. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
Police in Jerusalem have seized a hoard of stolen antiquities in Jerusalem, including coins, incense burners and ceramics. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
During the Bar Kokhba revolt, Shimon Ben Kosva (also called Simon Bar-Kokhba or just Bar-Kokhba) led the Jews in a revolt against Roman rule. The rebels initially captured a substantial amount of territory. However, the Romans counterattacked and gradually wiped out the rebels and killed many civilians. The ancient writer Cassius Dio claimed that more than 500,000 Jewish men were killed in the revolts. Archaeologists have found numerous hideouts that the Jews used to hide goods or people from the Roman army.
Despite stealing the goods, the Jewish rebels may not have used many of the artifacts, because they had images that may have gone against Jewish religious beliefs. "The Jewish fighters did not use them, since they are typical Roman cult artifacts and are decorated with figures and pagan symbols," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in the statement.
Police officers found the artifacts after they stopped a car that was "driving in the wrong direction up a one-way street," the statement said. Inside the car, they found the artifacts, which researchers think the robbers stole during illegal excavations of a tunnel complex. While the artifacts were seized in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem the precise location of the tunnel complex was not released.
Originally published on Live Science.
Tomb robbers had dug up the cache in a tunnel complex.
Police in Jerusalem have seized a hoard of stolen antiquities in Jerusalem, including coins, incense burners and ceramics. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
Police in Jerusalem seized a hoard of stolen antiquities that date to a 1,900-year-old Jewish rebellion against the Romans. The cache had been dug up by tomb robbers from a tunnel complex.
The hoard included hundreds of coins, incense burners and a number of ceramics with decorations on them, including a jug that has a carving of a reclining figure holding a jug of wine. Researchers believe that during the Bar Kokhba revolt (A.D. 132-135), Jewish rebels captured the items from Roman soldiers and stored them in a tunnel complex where modern-day robbers found them, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement released on their Facebook page on Wednesday (Dec. 15).
Inspectors from the Robbery Prevention Unit examine the artifacts seized in Jerusalem. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
Here, a jug that would have held wine some 1,900 years ago. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
Police in Jerusalem have seized a hoard of stolen antiquities in Jerusalem, including coins, incense burners and ceramics. (Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)
During the Bar Kokhba revolt, Shimon Ben Kosva (also called Simon Bar-Kokhba or just Bar-Kokhba) led the Jews in a revolt against Roman rule. The rebels initially captured a substantial amount of territory. However, the Romans counterattacked and gradually wiped out the rebels and killed many civilians. The ancient writer Cassius Dio claimed that more than 500,000 Jewish men were killed in the revolts. Archaeologists have found numerous hideouts that the Jews used to hide goods or people from the Roman army.
Despite stealing the goods, the Jewish rebels may not have used many of the artifacts, because they had images that may have gone against Jewish religious beliefs. "The Jewish fighters did not use them, since they are typical Roman cult artifacts and are decorated with figures and pagan symbols," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in the statement.
Police officers found the artifacts after they stopped a car that was "driving in the wrong direction up a one-way street," the statement said. Inside the car, they found the artifacts, which researchers think the robbers stole during illegal excavations of a tunnel complex. While the artifacts were seized in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem the precise location of the tunnel complex was not released.
Originally published on Live Science.
Billionaire hands over $70 million of stolen artifacts
By Ben Turner
The haul includes stone death masks and a chest for human remains
A billionaire hedge-fund manager has surrendered 180 stolen artifacts worth $70 million and has received a lifetime ban on acquiring more relics as part of a deal struck with the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Cyrus Vance, Jr. said in a statement that Michael Steinhardt, the 81-year-old founder of Steinhardt Partners and former chairman of the board of WisdomTree Investments, "displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe."
The DA's office said it had found "compelling evidence" that Steinhardt's extensive collection — which includes stone death masks from Israel, a chest for human remains from Crete and a fresco ripped from the walls of an ancient Roman villa — came from 11 countries and that at least 171 relics passed through trafficking networks before he bought them.
"The seized pieces were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable provenance prior to appearing on the international art market, according to the Statement of Facts summarizing the investigation," the office said in the statement.
The deal marks the end of an international grand jury investigation, beginning in 2017, in which the DA's office collaborated with law-enforcement authorities in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, Italy and Turkey.
The Larnax, a 1400-1200 BC chest for human remains taken from Crete. (Image credit: New York District Attorneys Office)
The DA began investigating Steinhardt in 2010, after he acquired a 2,300-year-old marble bull's head from Lebanon, which is believed to have been stolen from the country during its 15-year-long civil war, which ended in 1990.
"In the process of uncovering the Lebanese statues, the D.A.'s Office learned that Steinhardt possessed additional looted antiquities at his apartment and office, and, soon after, initiated a grand jury criminal investigation into his acquisition, possession, and sale of more than 1,000 antiquities since at least 1987," the office said.
As part of the agreement, Steinhardt will surrender a number of priceless artifacts, which he used to decorate his homes and offices and also lent to museums. These include the 400 B.C. Stag's Head Rhyton, a beautiful $3.5 million ceremonial vessel shaped into a stag's head that was looted from Milas, Turkey; three stone death masks dating to 6000 B.C.; a $1 million ornamental chest for human remains, called a larnax, taken from Crete that dates to between 1400 to 1200 B.C.; and the $1 million Ercolano Fresco, showing an infant Hercules strangling the snake that Hera sent to kill him, which was looted from Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town near Naples that was buried under ash and pumice by the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The Ercolano Fresco, looted from a Roman villa in Herculaneum, near Naples.
By Ben Turner
The haul includes stone death masks and a chest for human remains
The Stag's Head Rhyton dates back to 400 BC and was looted from Milas, Turkey. (Image credit: New York District Attorneys Office)
A billionaire hedge-fund manager has surrendered 180 stolen artifacts worth $70 million and has received a lifetime ban on acquiring more relics as part of a deal struck with the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Cyrus Vance, Jr. said in a statement that Michael Steinhardt, the 81-year-old founder of Steinhardt Partners and former chairman of the board of WisdomTree Investments, "displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe."
The DA's office said it had found "compelling evidence" that Steinhardt's extensive collection — which includes stone death masks from Israel, a chest for human remains from Crete and a fresco ripped from the walls of an ancient Roman villa — came from 11 countries and that at least 171 relics passed through trafficking networks before he bought them.
"The seized pieces were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable provenance prior to appearing on the international art market, according to the Statement of Facts summarizing the investigation," the office said in the statement.
The deal marks the end of an international grand jury investigation, beginning in 2017, in which the DA's office collaborated with law-enforcement authorities in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, Italy and Turkey.
The Larnax, a 1400-1200 BC chest for human remains taken from Crete. (Image credit: New York District Attorneys Office)
The DA began investigating Steinhardt in 2010, after he acquired a 2,300-year-old marble bull's head from Lebanon, which is believed to have been stolen from the country during its 15-year-long civil war, which ended in 1990.
"In the process of uncovering the Lebanese statues, the D.A.'s Office learned that Steinhardt possessed additional looted antiquities at his apartment and office, and, soon after, initiated a grand jury criminal investigation into his acquisition, possession, and sale of more than 1,000 antiquities since at least 1987," the office said.
As part of the agreement, Steinhardt will surrender a number of priceless artifacts, which he used to decorate his homes and offices and also lent to museums. These include the 400 B.C. Stag's Head Rhyton, a beautiful $3.5 million ceremonial vessel shaped into a stag's head that was looted from Milas, Turkey; three stone death masks dating to 6000 B.C.; a $1 million ornamental chest for human remains, called a larnax, taken from Crete that dates to between 1400 to 1200 B.C.; and the $1 million Ercolano Fresco, showing an infant Hercules strangling the snake that Hera sent to kill him, which was looted from Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town near Naples that was buried under ash and pumice by the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The Ercolano Fresco, looted from a Roman villa in Herculaneum, near Naples.
(Image credit: New York District Attorneys Office)
"His [Steinhardt's] pursuit of 'new' additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection," Vance said in the statement, adding that the priceless relics would now be returned to their rightful owners.
In a statement, Steinhardt's lawyers said that he was "pleased that the district attorney's years-long investigation has concluded without any charges, and that items wrongfully taken by others will be returned to their native countries."
This is far from the first time that Steinhardt’s relic habit has landed him in trouble with the law. In 1997, a Federal judge ruled that a 4500 B.C. gold bowl — which Steinhardt had imported from Sicily for $1 million — had been acquired illegally and under false pretenses. In 2018, a raid by investigators on Steinhardt’s office and Manhattan home resulted in the seizure of several ancient artifacts that had been stolen from Greece and Italy.
And in 2019, The New York Times reported that several women who worked for non-profits he funded had accused Steinhardt of sexual harassment. Steinhardt denies the accusations.
"His [Steinhardt's] pursuit of 'new' additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection," Vance said in the statement, adding that the priceless relics would now be returned to their rightful owners.
In a statement, Steinhardt's lawyers said that he was "pleased that the district attorney's years-long investigation has concluded without any charges, and that items wrongfully taken by others will be returned to their native countries."
This is far from the first time that Steinhardt’s relic habit has landed him in trouble with the law. In 1997, a Federal judge ruled that a 4500 B.C. gold bowl — which Steinhardt had imported from Sicily for $1 million — had been acquired illegally and under false pretenses. In 2018, a raid by investigators on Steinhardt’s office and Manhattan home resulted in the seizure of several ancient artifacts that had been stolen from Greece and Italy.
And in 2019, The New York Times reported that several women who worked for non-profits he funded had accused Steinhardt of sexual harassment. Steinhardt denies the accusations.
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