Manhattan DA Returns 30+ Stolen Antiquities to Spain, Italy, and Hungary

Key Takeaways:

• Manhattan DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit repatriated 34 stolen artifacts worth over $4 million to three European countries in August 2025
• Items included a 1st-century marble head of Alexander the Great stolen from Rome's Antiquarium Forense Museum
• The returns stem from investigations into major trafficking networks involving convicted dealers like Robin Symes and Giacomo Medici
• Since DA Alvin Bragg took office, the unit has recovered 2,375 antiquities from 46 countries valued at $255 million

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced this week the successful repatriation of 34 antiquities to Spain, Italy, and Hungary, marking another significant victory in the ongoing battle against international cultural property trafficking. The items, valued collectively at over $4 million, were recovered through investigations targeting sophisticated smuggling networks that have operated for decades.

The most notable piece among the Italian returns is a 1st-century marble head depicting Alexander the Great as Helios, the sun god. This sculpture was originally excavated from the Basilica Emilia in the Roman Forum in the early 1900s but was stolen from Rome's state-run Antiquarium Forense Museum. After being laundered through multiple hands in New York, it was purchased in good faith by Manhattan antiquities dealer Alan Safani in 2017. The piece illustrates the complex chains of custody that characterize the illicit antiquities trade.

Italy also received 30 additional artifacts, including 61 fragments of a 6th-century BCE terracotta column-krater attributed to the Lydos Painter. This vessel's journey demonstrates the extreme lengths traffickers will pursue—the original krater was broken into fragments that were sold separately and distributed across institutions over several years. Pieces ended up at the Getty Museum, Princeton Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art before being reunited and seized by authorities in 2025.

Spain received two 6th-century Visigoth bronze harness pendants that had been trafficked by Robin Symes, the London-based dealer who died in 2023 while under investigation. Hungary received a 17th-century Jesuit manuscript that was stolen from a Budapest library during World War II. Investigators used multispectral imaging to reveal that institutional stamps had been deliberately removed to obscure the manuscript's origins.

The repatriations result from ongoing investigations into major trafficking figures including Edoardo Almagià, for whom the DA's office has issued an arrest warrant. The office has executed 37 seizures of 295 objects trafficked by Almagià, valued at over $6 million. Eugene Alexander was convicted in July 2025 for his role in a conspiracy that involved 69 antiquities worth $32.9 million.

These returns represent the latest success for the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, established in 2017 under Matthew Bogdanos. Since District Attorney Alvin Bragg took office in 2021, the unit has maintained an aggressive pursuit of cultural property crimes, resulting in the recovery of artifacts from 46 countries. The unit has convicted 18 individuals of cultural property-related crimes and recovered more than 6,060 antiquities valued at over $476 million since its inception.