Michael Steinhardt
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hedge-fund pioneer and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt has surrendered 180 stolen antiquities valued at $70 million and has been banned for all times from buying antiquities, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. mentioned Monday.
The give up of the objects comes after a probe that started in 2017 into Steinhardt’s “legal conduct,” the DA’s workplace mentioned in a press release saying an settlement with the billionaire to surrender the art work.
“The seized items had been looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 international locations, trafficked by 12 legal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable provenance previous to showing on the worldwide artwork market, in response to the Statement of Facts summarizing the investigation,” the workplace mentioned.
The settlement, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, ends a grand jury probe of Steinhardt, that means he is not going to be criminally charged within the case, in response to the DA’s workplace.
Vance mentioned the settlement with Steinhardt, 80, will end result within the stolen objects being returned to their rightful homeowners in these international locations as a substitute of being held as proof “to finish the grand jury indictment, trial, potential conviction and sentence.”
The settlement comes three years after Steinhardt’s workplace and residential had been raided by investigators as a part of Vance’s probe. The DA mentioned Steinhardt’s settlement to just accept a lifetime ban from buying antiquities was “unprecedented.” The deal defines antiquities are artifacts created earlier than 1500 A.D.
Items submitted in a Grand Jury Investigation into a non-public New York Antiquities Collection.
Source: New York District Attorneys Office
“Even although Steinhardt’s decades-long indifference to the rights of peoples to their very own sacred treasures is appalling, the pursuits of justice previous to indictment and trial favor a decision that ensures {that a} substantial portion of the injury to world cultural heritage will likely be undone, as soon as and for all,” Vance mentioned.
The settlement notes that “Steinhardt maintains that he didn’t commit any crimes associated to his acquisition, possession, or sale of any antiquities.”
On the opposite hand, Vance’s workplace “maintains that the proof would set up at trial that Steinhardt purchased, offered, and in any other case dealt in antiquities and that he knew, or ought to have ascertained by affordable inquiry, that the antiquities listed in Exhibit A had been stolen,” the settlement says.
“Nonetheless, [Vance’s office] has decided that the equities on this case and the pursuits of justice previous to indictment and trial favor the decision embodied on this Agreement.”
Steinhardt based his firm Steinhardt Partners LLP in 1967. He closed the hedge fund in 1995. He additionally served 15 years as chairman of the board of Wisdom Tree Investments earlier than retiring in 2019.
Items submitted in a Grand Jury Investigation into a non-public New York Antiquities Collection.
Steinhardt’s legal professionals, Andrew Levander and Theodore Wells Jr., in a press release, mentioned, “Mr. Steinhardt is happy that the District Attorney’s years-long investigation has concluded with none costs, and that objects wrongfully taken by others will likely be returned to their native international locations.”
“Many of the sellers from whom Mr. Steinhardt purchased this stuff made particular representations as to the sellers’ lawful title to the objects, and to their alleged provenance,” the legal professionals mentioned. “To the extent these representations had been false, Mr. Steinhardt has reserved his rights to hunt recompense from the sellers concerned.”
The DA’s workplace mentioned the probe started when investigators regarded right into a statue of a Lebanese bull’s head, which was stolen through the Lebanese Civil War.
That investigation decided Steinhardt had purchased the statue, which is at present valued at $12 million, and later loaned it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the workplace mentioned. That statue was seized, as was a second marble statue of a calf bearer, which additionally was from Lebanon and which had additionally been purchased by Steinhardt for thousands and thousands of {dollars}. The calf bearer is now valued at $10 million, in response to the settlement.
Items submitted in a Grand Jury Investigation into a non-public New York Antiquities Collection.
Source: New York District Attorneys Office
“In the method of uncovering the Lebanese statues, the D.A.’s Office discovered that Steinhardt possessed further looted antiquities at his condo and workplace, and, quickly after, initiated a grand jury legal investigation into his acquisition, possession, and sale of greater than 1,000 antiquities since not less than 1987,” the workplace mentioned.
“As a part of this inquiry into legal conduct by Steinhardt, the D.A.’s Office executed 17 judicially-ordered search warrants and carried out joint investigations with law-enforcement authorities in 11 international locations: Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Turkey,” it mentioned.
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Vance mentioned in a press release, “For many years, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious urge for food for plundered artifacts with out concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the items he purchased and offered, or the grievous cultural injury he wrought throughout the globe.”
“His pursuit of ‘new’ additions to showcase and promote knew no geographic or ethical boundaries, as mirrored within the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, cash launderers, and tomb raiders he relied upon to broaden his assortment,” Vance mentioned.
Items submitted in a Grand Jury Investigation into a non-public New York Antiquities Collection.
Source: New York District Attorneys Office
In 2019, The New York Times reported that six ladies had accused Steinhardt of sexual harassment. He denied the allegations.
The Times report, which additionally cited a lawsuit filed by one other lady, mentioned he had made sexual requests when the ladies sought help from the philanthropist. The Times additionally reported that Steinhardt appeared in two sexual harassment lawsuits however was not named as a defendant in both case.
The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life referred to as the Times report “deliberately defamatory.”
But in a press release, the inspiration additionally mentioned Steinhardt’s “humorousness may be insensitive, and he has apologized for the unintended dangerous emotions his remarks have induced.” The web site features a assertion from the billionaire, who denies ever making an attempt to the touch anybody inappropriately.
Vance’s workplace detailed various the objects surrendered by Steinhardt.
They embody:
The Stag’s Head Rhyton, depicting a finely wrought stag’s head within the type of a ceremonial vessel for libations, bought from The Merrin Gallery for $2.6 million in November 1991. The merchandise, which dates to 400 B.C.E., first appeared with out provenance on the worldwide artwork market after rampant looting in Milas, Turkey. In March 1993, Steinhardt loaned the Stag’s Head Rhyton to the Met, the place it remained till the D.A.’s Office utilized for and acquired a warrant to grab it. Today, the Stag’s Head Rhyton is valued at $3.5 million. The Larnax, a small chest for human stays from Greek Island of Crete that dates between 1400-1200 B.C.E., bought from identified antiquities trafficker Eugene Alexander by way of Seychelles-headquartered FAM Services for $575,000 in October 2016. Alexander instructed Steinhardt to pay FAM Services by way of Satabank, a Malta-based monetary establishment later suspended for cash laundering. While complaining a few subpoena requesting provenance documentation for a special stolen antiquity, Steinhardt pointed to the Larnax and mentioned to an investigator with A.T.U.: “You see this piece? There’s no provenance for it. If I see a bit and I prefer it, then I purchase it.” Today, the Larnax is valued at $1 million. The Ercolano Fresco bought from convicted antiquities trafficker Robert Hecht and his antiquities restorer Harry Burki with no prior provenance for $650,000 in November 1995. Depicting an toddler Hercules strangling a snake despatched by Hera to slay him, the Ercolano Fresco dates to 50 C.E. and was looted in 1995 from a Roman villa within the ruins of Herculaneum, situated close to trendy Naples within the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. It first appeared on the worldwide artwork market on November 10, 1995 when Hecht’s enterprise accomplice wrote Steinhardt relating to a “crate being delivered to you quickly” with the artifact inside. Today, the Ercolano Fresco is valued at $1 million.The Gold Bowl looted from Nimrud, Iraq, and bought from Svyatoslav Konkin with no prior provenance for $150,000 in July 2020. Beginning in 2015, objects from Nimrud had been trafficked when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) focused cultural heritage from Nimrud, Hatra, and Khorsabad, notably historical objects made from gold or valuable steel. The Gold Bowl, which is crafted from gold with a scalloped flower design, first surfaced on the worldwide artwork market in October 2019, when a Customs and Border Patrol officer notified the D.A.’s Office that Konkin was on a flight from Hong Kong to Newark, New Jersey, hand-carrying the Gold Bowl for Steinhardt. Today, the Gold Bowl is valued at $200,000. Three Death Masks bought from identified antiquities trafficker Gil Chaya with no provenance in any way for $400,000 in October 2007, lower than a yr after they surfaced on the worldwide artwork market. The Death Masks (circa 6000 to 7000 B.C.E.) had been crafted from stone and originated within the foothills of the Judean mountains, most certainly within the Shephelah in Israel. They seem soil-encrusted and coated in dust in images recovered by Israeli law-enforcement authorities. Today, the Death Masks are valued at $650,000.