Bowling Green prepares to return ancient Turkish mosaics
BOWLING GREEN — Representatives from Turkey joined officials from Bowling Green University this past week to announce that a set of ancient mosaics that were part of the school’s art collection are being readied for their return to Turkey, more than a half-century after looters removed them from the ruins of Roman homes and smuggled them out of the country.
The announcement was made at a news conference Tuesday.
Southern Methodist University art history professor Stephanie Langin-Hooper, one of the researchers who probed the history of the mosaics, praised the return of the artifacts.
“Today we have a modern triumph — a reverse triumph if you will — where looted masterpieces get to go home,” she said. “It is a triumph for scholarship, for research and for collaboration.”
Turkish Consul General Umut Acar thanked university officials for their cooperation in the matter.
“It’s that understanding and respect that brings together representatives from a city in southeast Turkey with Bowling Green residents,” Acar said.
Officials originally thought the pieces were from the Turkish city of Antioch but researchers later determined they probably came from the city of Zeugma.
Bowling Green bought the 12 mosaics for about $35,000 from a New York gallery in 1965 and displayed them under glass in the floor of the Wolfe Center for the Arts. The university acquired the mosaics in compliance with the law at the time.
“The mosaics’ new home Bowling Green bought 12 mosaics for about $35,000 from a New York gallery in 1965, not knowing they had been stolen from Turkey. will allow these historic artifacts to be appreciated and studied where they originated and to be enjoyed by a much wider audience,” Bowling Green President Rodney Rogers said.
After they are returned to Turkey, the mosaics will be copied and the replicas will be sent back to Bowling Green to replace the originals.