The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) has returned to Greece a 28.5 cm bronze griffin head dating from the 7th century BC, which was part of the decor of a cauldron used for votive offerings, “An exceptional example of ancient Greek metallurgy” explained the Minister of Greek Culture Lina Mendoni. It’s a restitution “From one of the most emblematic objects in our collection. It is the head of Griffon in bronze that we examined and which we have concluded that it had not legally left her country of origin, Greece ” said the director of Met Max Hollein in a statement.
An internal investigation undertaken by the MET in 2018 had revealed that the object, discovered in the years 1914 in the Kladeos river in Olympia, had been stolen in 1936 at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, in the Peloponnese. The object would then have been sold to the New York gallery owner Joseph Brummer, then bought by Walter C. Baker, a former director of the New York Met and Financial, who had given it to the Met in 1971.
It is the first play in the museum returned since the appointment of Lucian Simmons, former director of the restitutions at Sotheby’s, head of the search from Provenance to the Met, a newly created position to more actively study the provenances of the collection.
Griffon’s head will again be exhibited in the United States in 2026 as part of an exhibition at the MET, a loan that Max Hollein describes as “Testimony of our common commitment to cultural exchanges”.
In 2022, an agreement was also signed between Greece and the United States for the return of the American billionaire and philanthropist collection Leonard Stern. The agreement provides that objects will be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York until 2048, before being gradually brought back to Greece.
