The bronzes from Bubon’s Sebasteion

Illegal digs are inevitable and Turkey with its countless antique sites is no exception. A beautiful bronze head of an unknown young man displayed at the Getty Villa has recently been identified as stolen or illegally excavated, and it is heartwarming to hear that it will be returned to Turkey. 

The Getty Museum in Malibu, California, acquired the head in 1971 and it could be established that it belonged to a now-lost life-size figure. It is marked with the letter alpha (the Greek A) at the bottom of the neck. The inlaid eyes, which always add so much character to a face, are missing. 

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 Lycia. Since the late 1960s, several bronzes have been smuggled out of Turkey from that area. Most depicted Roman emperors and their families but the head at Getty has yet to be identified. 

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 Rome. 

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. 

Lucius Verus apparently stood next to Marcus Aurelius, his adoptive brother and co-ruler. His headless statue may be at The Cleveland Museum of Art and his Bubon origin is now under investigation. 

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 New York and has been turned over to the authorities for repatriation. Some experts believe the missing head is kept at the Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark. The head of Caracalla has been seized from the Met and his torso is probably in the hands of a Greek collector. Emperor Valerian stood nearby and his torso is now exhibited at the Museum of Burdur, Turkey. Commodus also had a plinth of his own.

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 Turkey. 

[Top picture from Getty Museum. Lucius Verus is mine taken at the MANN]