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New York investigators have sought the arrest of Aaron Mendelsohn, a 74-year-old antiquities collector from Santa Monica, California, over claims that he knowingly purchased a looted Roman bronze statue for $1.3 million.
The piece, widely referred to as the “Nude Emperor,” is a 2,000-year-old torso believed to have been illegally excavated in the 1960s at the ancient city of Bubon or Boubon, located in modern-day Burdur, Türkiye. The Manhattan district attorney’s office argues that Mendelsohn was aware of its illicit origins when he acquired it from a New York gallery in 2007.
Court documents filed in New York Criminal Court allege that Mendelsohn conspired with art experts to mask the statue’s true provenance. Investigators reviewed his electronic correspondence, which they say included discussions with a former museum curator about strategies to avoid legal scrutiny. One suggestion was to restrict viewings of the piece to private guests only.
Mendelsohn’s lawyer, Marcus A. Asner, countered that his client neither knew nor accepted that the statue came from Bubon. He also questioned the jurisdiction of New York prosecutors over property held in California, where Mendelsohn has initiated legal action to block the statue’s seizure. Asner described the district attorney’s efforts as “overreaching, inappropriate and frankly unconstitutional.”
The arrest warrant is part of a broader campaign by Türkiye and international prosecutors to recover antiquities smuggled from the country. Since the establishment of Türkiye’s Anti-Smuggling Department within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, thousands of artifacts have been successfully repatriated.
Over the past seven years alone, Türkiye has secured the return of 26,684 cultural objects, nearly 9,000 of which were reclaimed after 2018. Among the most notable was a bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, also traced back to Bubon, which was recently displayed at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has emphasized that deterring buyers is central to combatting looting. “If you want to discourage the smugglers, you need to discourage the buyers,” he said, underlining the importance of international cooperation in protecting cultural heritage.
The case highlights how ancient treasures from Türkiye, particularly the statues looted from Bubon, continue to resurface on the global art market decades after their removal. It also underscores the increasing willingness of prosecutors in the United States to pursue criminal charges alongside civil claims in order to return disputed artifacts.
As the legal proceedings move forward, authorities in Türkiye expect that the “Nude Emperor” will ultimately be repatriated, adding to the growing list of antiquities brought back through sustained diplomatic and legal efforts.
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