ANKARA

A bronze statue of the famed Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, looted from Türkiye in the 1960s, is set to return to its homeland within the next few days.

The statue dating from around AD 50-250, which depicts Aurelius as a philosopher, was illegally excavated from the ancient city of Boubon in Burdur, southwestern Türkiye, and was smuggled abroad. It is currently housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the US.

Following lengthy legal and scholarly efforts, the statue, which towers 1.93 meters (6.3 feet) without its head, will soon be returned to Türkiye thanks to a charter flight by flag carrier Turkish Airlines

After being smuggled out of Türkiye, the statue changed hands for years.

Taking antiquities out of Turkiye, a cradle of civilizations for millennia, is strictly prohibited under law, with considerable penalties for offenders.

The Cleveland Museum of Art contested the seizure in court in 2023, arguing that the statue’s origins were unclear. However, Türkiye presented evidence disproving the claim, leading to the decision to return the artifact.

The statue was officially given to Türkiye during a ceremony this April at the Cleveland Museum of Art but stayed in the museum for a special exhibition until July.

Leader and thinker

Known as the philosopher emperor, Marcus Aurelius lived between 121 and 180, and ruled the Roman Empire from 161 until his death in the year 180.

He is remembered as the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors, a period marked by stability, prosperity, and relatively wise governance. During this era, the empire reached its greatest territorial extent, stretching from northern Britain to as far east as Arabia.

Marcus Aurelius was not only a powerful ruler but also a thinker. Despite leading an empire, he wrote the Meditations, a famed personal journal of Stoic philosophy and spiritual reflections. Written in Greek, the work was never intended for publication, yet it has endured as a philosophical classic.

His death at age 58 marked a turning point. With the end of his reign came the end of Rome’s long period of internal peace and good governance. Soon after, civil war erupted, ushering in a more turbulent chapter in the empire’s history.