6,000-year-old marble “Stargazer” statue #looters
A similar stargazer idol from Turkey at the Cycladic Art Museum in Athens, Greece (image via Flickr)
A New York court rules that Turkey has no right to a 6,000-year-old marble “Stargazer” statue, claiming it waited too long to ask for it back. REALLY?
A New York court ruled March 8, that Turkey has no right to a 6,000-year-old marble sculpture the nation says was looted because it waited too long to ask for it back. In 2017, billionaire Michael Steinhardt consigned the “Guennol Stargazer” idol to Christie’s, where it sold for $12.7 million.
“Turkey sat on its hands despite signals from its own Ministry of Culture that the Stargazer was in New York City,” reads the decision from New York’s United States Court of Appeals for the Second District. “Turkey’s failure to bring its claim (or even investigate it) until 2017 was unreasonable.” The verdict follows a previous case decided against Turkey in 2021.


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