NY returns artifacts seized from millionaire to Israel

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors in New York announced Tuesday the repatriation to Israel of looted antiquities valued at $5 million that they seized from millionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt, known in that country as a promoter of cultural institutions.

The 39 items that will be returned to Israel include two gold masks dating from around 5000 BC, valued at $500,000, and a set of three death masks between 6000 and 7000 BC whose total value is $650,000, said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“These rare and beautiful artifacts, which are thousands of years old, have been kept hidden from the public due to looting and illegal trafficking,” Bragg said. “My office is proud to once again return historic antiques where they rightfully belong.”

The objects that authorities say were illegally removed from Israel are part of $70 million worth of stolen antiquities that Steinhardt agreed to hand over in December in an agreement to avoid a trial.

According to the deal, Steinhardt is permanently prohibited from acquiring antiques. Other seized items have already been returned to the Greek and Jordanian authorities.

The AP sent a request for statements about Tuesday's announcement to a lawyer for Steinhardt. His lawyers have said earlier that the dealers from whom Steinhardt bought antiques told him that they had legal title to the artifacts.

Of the 39 items that will be repatriated to Israel, 28 were handed over to the Israeli authorities on Tuesday. Three were already on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and eight have not yet been located, but they will be returned as soon as they are found, the district attorney's office said. Several of the returned artifacts were looted from the occupied West Bank.

In addition, Palestinian authorities are holding a 3,000-year-old spoon that was used to pour incense into the fire, prosecutors said.

Eitan Klein, deputy director of the theft prevention unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said that antiquities “are invaluable to the state of Israel and its people. They symbolize our rich and vast cultural heritage. Now, they are being returned to their rightful owners.”

Klein said his office was proud to be part of the investigation of the looted devices together with the District Attorney and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Steinhardt, 81, founded the hedge fund Steinhardt Partners in 1967 and closed it in 1995. He came out of retirement in 2004 to direct Wisdom Tree Investments.

Steinhardt has been a major donor to Jewish philanthropy and is the co-founder of Birthright, a program that takes young American Jews to Israel on a free trip. He is a sponsor of the Israel Museum, which houses three of the artifacts confiscated by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, as well as several other Israeli cultural institutions, including a natural history museum at Tel Aviv University named after him.

After AP reported that Steinhardt's name still appeared on his artefacts looted at the Israel Museum, the Hebrew-language newspaper Haaretz published an editorial calling for him to be removed from the walls of the institution.

The Israel Museum has removed Steinhardt's name from the labels of two Neolithic masks on display in its galleries.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said that, upon its return to Israel, the artifacts confiscated from Steinhardt would be kept in a storage facility outside Jerusalem and that there were no immediate plans to expose them to the public.

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Ben Zion reported from Jerusalem.