U.S. Museum Repatriates Marble Head to Turkey

News April 16, 2026

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İZMIR, TURKEY—The Denver Art Museum has repatriated a marble sculpture head of a bearded man taken from the site of the ancient city of Smyrna to Turkey, according to a Yeni Şafak report. Records show that the sculpture, thought to have been carved in the fifth century A.D., was unearthed in the city’s agora in 1934, said Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy. “Through cooperation and constructive dialogue with the Denver Art Museum, we have brought this artifact back home,” Ersoy added. The sculpture is now on display at the İzmir Archaeology Museum. To read about marble panels excavated in a Roman villa at Ephesus, go to "Kaleidoscopic Walls."

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