The top half of 1,800-year-old Roman sculpture Weary Herakles, which was returned from the U.S. Sept. 25 on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plane, rejoined the lower half in Antalya and was displayed yesterday at Antalya Museum.
A ceremony was held yesterday at the museum for the sculpture with the participation of Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, Antalya Governor Ahmet Altıparmak, Mayor Mustafa Akaydın and some cinema artists.
Günay said it was a special day for all people who placed importance on history and archaeology. “We are really very happy because we show great success compared to past years in bringing back the artwork that has been illegally smuggled from Turkey in recent years.”
He said 4,519 artifacts were brought back to Turkey since 1998. “These are very important developments showing that we do not only promote Turkey’s economy and tourism abroad, but protect its history. This is the result thanks to the contributions of ministers for many years,” Günay said.
The lower half of the Herakles sculpture was found during excavations in the 1980s by Professor Jale İnan and the top half attracted the attention of journalist Özgen Özer in an exhibition abroad. “But the U.S. officials claimed that the parts did not belong to each other,” Günay said. “We repeated our demand over and over again in recent years to get it back. Today two parts of a body, which were longing for each other, reunited.”
Source: Hurriyet Daily News [October 09, 2011]
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| The ‘Weary Herakles’ sculpture began to be displayed at the Antalya Museum after its two halves were reunited by experts [Credit: DHA] |
Günay said it was a special day for all people who placed importance on history and archaeology. “We are really very happy because we show great success compared to past years in bringing back the artwork that has been illegally smuggled from Turkey in recent years.”
He said 4,519 artifacts were brought back to Turkey since 1998. “These are very important developments showing that we do not only promote Turkey’s economy and tourism abroad, but protect its history. This is the result thanks to the contributions of ministers for many years,” Günay said.
The lower half of the Herakles sculpture was found during excavations in the 1980s by Professor Jale İnan and the top half attracted the attention of journalist Özgen Özer in an exhibition abroad. “But the U.S. officials claimed that the parts did not belong to each other,” Günay said. “We repeated our demand over and over again in recent years to get it back. Today two parts of a body, which were longing for each other, reunited.”
Source: Hurriyet Daily News [October 09, 2011]