Like top museums, auction houses have been criticized for benefiting from shadowy supply chains that enable the trafficking of valuable antiquities. Sotheby’s has also been embroiled in several provenance scandals and accused of selling Nazi-looted objects.
Sotheby’s has been a leader in an art market where shrugging off provenance concerns for items of cultural property has been the norm.
— art historian Angela Chiu
In March 2023, ICIJ’s Hidden Treasures investigation identified at least 1,109 works in the museum’s catalog previously owned by people either indicted or convicted of antiquities crimes; 309 of them were on display. The findings coincided with a flurry of seizures of stolen works from the Met by state prosecutors.
The Met has recently been forced to reckon with the extent to which its collection of 1.5 million-plus works includes looted artifacts, in part due to investigations by law enforcement and media outlets, including the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The museum has since touted several high-profile repatriations, including a recent agreement to return 14 ancient sculptures to Cambodia and two to Thailand.
Last year, the National Gallery of Australia announced it would return three millennia-old bronze statues bought from Latchford in 2011 for $1.5 million to Cambodia.
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