[MSN] Russia's state cultural watchdog said Wednesday it has seized precious Byzantine-era items that an art dealer offered to Russian museums amid suspicion they may have been stolen from a museum in Turkey more than four decades ago.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Russian watchdog seizes art items

2007/2/2
MOSCOW, AP


Russia's state cultural watchdog said Wednesday it has seized precious
Byzantine-era items that an art dealer offered to Russian museums amid
suspicion they may have been stolen from a museum in Turkey more than four
decades ago.

A silver cross, an ornamented gold bracelet and a silver box for holding a
saint's remains had been offered to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and
Moscow's Kremlin Museums by a U.S. art dealer several weeks ago, said
Anatoly Vilkov, a deputy head of the agency Rosokhrankultura.

He said the items came from private collections in Britain and Austria, but
refused to name any owners or the dealer.

After checking the items, which date from the 5th to 12th centuries, the
agency contacted Turkey's Culture Ministry, which said the items appeared to
have been stolen from the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara in
1963.

Vilkov said the agency had ordered the items to be held pending proof of
ownership by the Turkish authorities. "Now we are waiting for Turkey to
prove its rights with documents," he told The Associated Press.

Turkish Culture Ministry officials were not immediately available for
comment.

The agency had invited the items' current owners to produce evidence of
legitimate ownership, said Vilkov. "We consider them rightful owners until
it's proven otherwise."

Vilkov said the watchdog had been checking all items offered to Russian
museums using its own information and an Interpol database.

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