New York tycoon returns stolen works of art worth 62 million euros

The New York tycoon Michael Steinhardt has returned stolen works of art worth 62 million euros.

The 81-year-old New Yorker Michael Steinhardt, an art lover, investor and patron, who has a fortune of more than 1,000 million euros, has become embroiled in a controversial matter that has involved the authorities, all because of his private antique collection.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney, he was found to have a high number of stolen artworks in his collection, approximately 180, which will now be returned to their countries of origin. This is the result of an investigation that began in 2017 due to suspicions that Steinhardt’s collection may not be completely legal, as many of the pieces had allegedly been acquired on the black market.

After several weeks of investigations, it has been confirmed that every one of the stolen artworks will be returned to its place of origin, which will cause Steinhardt’s worth to descend by approximately 62 million euros (the total value of the collection is more than 200 million). He has also been banned from acquiring more artworks for the rest of his life, which probably means the end of his costly hobby.

“For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe,” said the District Attorney, Cy Vance.

Vance guaranteed that the pieces would be “returned expeditiously to their rightful owners in 11 countries rather than be held as evidence for the years necessary to complete the grand-jury indictment, trial, potential conviction and sentence.”

The collected included pieces from Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel and Italy. Some of the most notable pieces are Roman artifacts from thousands of years ago.

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