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The United States, which returned 104 historical artifacts to Türkiye, including a statue of Marcus Aurelius, has become the country that has repatriated the most cultural assets in recent years.
As Türkiye pursues its historical artifacts illegally taken abroad, the U.S. has emerged as one of its closest partners in recent years. Since 2024, the U.S. has returned 104 artifacts to Türkiye, making it the leading country in repatriations.
Among the pieces repatriated since last year are a terracotta vase in the form of a lekythos, a statue head, a bronze kline, 14 miscellaneous objects, a necklace from the Bintepeler necropolis, an ossuary and bone fragments from Western Anatolia, a historical pot, and the Marcus Aurelius statue. Most recently, 83 bronze coins from the Roman Empire were returned. Many of these repatriations took place during Donald Trump’s administration, which observers link to a shift in the U.S. approach to cultural heritage.
Türkiye still seeks the return of several artifacts in U.S. collections. Chief among them are pieces taken from Sardis to the Metropolitan Museum during the Greek occupation. While five imperial statues have been repatriated from the US so far, efforts continue for the return of a 2,000-year-old imperial statue from Boubon, currently in a private collection and subject to a seizure order.
To date, the Republic of Türkiye has recovered more than 13,000 historical artifacts from abroad through diplomatic and legal efforts led by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other institutions. Nearly 2,700 of these cultural assets have come from the U.S.
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