When an ancient bronze statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius returned to Turkish soil after decades abroad, it marked more than a symbolic homecoming.
It was the latest success in Turkey’s push to recover antiquities taken abroad, a campaign now backed by a newly developed artificial intelligence tool designed to identify cultural assets of Turkish origin.
The life-sized bronze statue, dating to the second or third century, was taken in the 1960s from the ancient city of Bubon near the southwestern province of Antalya.
After a yearslong investigation involving archival research, scientific testing and witness statements, the headless statue was returned to Turkey last year.
Its repatriation from a museum in Ohio involved cooperation with the US Department of Homeland Security and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
For Zeynep Boz, head of Turkey’s department for combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property, one moment stood out.
“I clearly remember when the computer finally processed the data and we saw the match come together. It was an exciting moment,” she told Agence France-Presse at the İstanbul Archaeology Museums.
The statue’s survival is rare because bronze in antiquity was often melted down and reused for weapons, coins or household objects.
“For this reason, bronze statues of this scale have rarely been preserved, until today,” she said.
Boz said the Cleveland Museum of Art had for years argued there was not enough evidence to prove the statue’s origin.
That changed after archaeometry expert Professor Ernst Pernicka concluded there was “no doubt whatsoever” that the statue came from Bubon, where an imperial shrine once housed bronze sculptures of Roman emperors.
Soil and lead samples provided scientific evidence that helped convince the museum, Boz said.
“It was a long struggle. We were determined and patient, and we won,” Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said when the statue returned in July.
Turkey stepped up efforts against illicit antiquities trafficking and secured the repatriation of 180 cultural artifacts in 2025 alone.
Under a newly developed artificial intelligence system called TraceART, the culture ministry scans images on sales platforms, auctions and social media to identify cultural assets of Turkish origin that may have been trafficked.
Although the system was not used in the Marcus Aurelius case, Boz said it helped identify two 16th-century İznik tiles recovered from Britain this month.
TraceART became operational in 2025 and has since flagged hundreds of objects for expert review, she said.
In January, Turkey recovered an Anatolian-style marble head from the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, according to Burcu Özdemir of the antiquities trafficking unit.
She said the museum contacted Ankara because the piece “had been donated by the wife of a US consul general who served in İstanbul in the 1940s.”
Turkey’s campaign has also involved returning artifacts to other countries, including Iran, China and Egypt.
“We returned two of the artifacts stolen from temples in China,” Boz told Agence France-Presse.
She also said Turkey returned “a key of the Kaaba to Egypt” after determining that it had ended up in Turkey illegally. The Kaaba is the cube-shaped structure at the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
Turkey is also seeking the return of other artifacts taken during the Ottoman era, including an ancient marble torso known as the Old Fisherman from Berlin and dozens of İznik tiles held by France’s Louvre Museum.
“There’s an assumption that artifacts taken in the 18th and 19th centuries were acquired legally. We don’t share that view,” Boz said.
The issue of the tiles came to light in 2003 when one fell from the wall of an Ottoman-era library and a French manufacturer’s mark was found on the back.
The originals and others were taken in the late 1800s by a Frenchman who said he was restoring them, then replaced them with copies, Boz said.
“We have repeatedly shared evidence with France and talked with the Louvre, but no resolution has been reached,” she said.
The tiles had been part of a panel near the tomb of Ottoman Sultan Selim II in the garden of Hagia Sophia.
Today, a plaque in English, French and Turkish reads, “The tiles before us are replicas.”
The originals are now on display at a branch of the Louvre in Lens, about 200 kilometers north of Paris, which says they were bought in 1895.
The museum did not respond to several requests for comment from Agence France-Presse.
© Agence France-Presse