Illegal digs are
inevitable and
The
Dated to the
period between 100 BC and 100 AD, the statue's provenance was not
documented, although scholars now link it to the archaeological site of Bubon
in ancient
In October 2023, the New York Times published an article on these bronzes from illegal digs that have been scattered around the world to various private homes and museums.
By 1967 the looting became apparent and slowly stopped as the Turkish police found a headless bronze torso hidden in the woods near Bubon. This site turned out to be the main source for this unique collection and authorities are determined to track the looters down.
Bubon has not been systematically excavated and all that remains are a small theater and stadium, as well as an Acropolis. The main building may have been a shrine or Sebasteion, where several bronze statues stood around a U-shaped courtyard that was probably roofed. The Sebasteion may have been started by Nero and his wife Poppea Sabina. His example was followed by eleven emperors and three empresses, the last being Gallienus, who ruled till 268 AD. In the following decades, Bubon suffered from repeated earthquakes which buried and saved the Sebasteion.
Scholars and
experts aim to restitute the group of statues, which represented an important binding
factor between the citizens to the power of faraway
In the end, the villagers themselves, now in their 60s and 70s, provided the most precious information. They described the statues and their posture and remembered how they were sold. Their plinths with the names of the emperors in Greek are still in situ.
Septimius Severus was
accompanied by his wife and sons, Caracalla
and Geta. His headless statue was
on loan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
In due time, more
emperors will be reconciled with their names on the pedestals and more effigies
or body parts will be returned to their rightful
spot in
[Top picture from Getty Museum. Lucius Verus is mine taken at the MANN]
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