New York state's judiciary has decided to return two 7th-century tombstone statues to China. These works of art, which were cut from the tombs in China in the early 1990s and then removed from the country, were last exhibited in New York's famous Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). The combined value of the two statues is $3,5 million.
For more than two years, the New York Judiciary has been campaigning for the return of works that were illegally removed from other countries and stored or exhibited in this city's museums and art galleries. The two sculptures in question, like other works of art, started to be exhibited at the New York Metropolitan Museum, one of the most respected art institutions in the United States, after following a different route.
Manhattan Attorney Alain Bragg, in his statement, stated that the works in question were confiscated from 1998 and are on display at the Metropolitan Museum, where they were temporarily entrusted by a collector, Shelby White, until 2023. The statues were returned to the Chinese Consul General in New York at a ceremony held on May 9, 2023.