AC’s Tess Davis Quoted in ICIJ’s Met Investigation
September 29, 2022
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest museum in the United States, is no stranger to controversy. In the last decade, the museum has been at the center of numerous government seizures and repatriations, and forced to return millions of dollars worth of looted and stolen antiquities.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), along with reporting partner Finance Uncovered, reviewed records from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that detail nine warrants to seize ancient works from the Met since 2017. ICIJ reports six of those warrants are from the past year alone, and cover more than 30 ancient relics, while two others haven’t been previously reported.
Tess Davis, Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition, was quoted as part of the investigation in response to the Met’s ongoing scandals:
“The numbers are rapidly adding up… In what other context could you make headlines so often for holding stolen property and not face any consequences?”
The Antiquities Coalition urges the Met to take strong, concrete, and immediate action to return the stolen items within its walls and set the standard for museums across the globe.
Read the full article here.