Seven Ancient Warrior Helmets Are Headed Back to Spain After Their Owner Learned They Were Looted in the 1980s

Seven ancient bronze Celtic
warrior helmets have been returned to their native Spain after it
was revealed that the artifacts were pilfered goods, in what the
country is calling the most “significant return of stolen heritage since
2012.”

The restitution came after
British collector Christian Levett, who acquired the helmets
legally, discovered that two people had been convicted last year of
plucking the armor from an archaeological site in Spain during the
1980s. He learned of the looting via Spanish media, he tells Artnet
News. In response, Levett worked with Spain’s ambassador to UNESCO,
signing an act of voluntary surrender of the ancient objects, which
date between 400 and 200 BC. 

Levett, who is also the founder
of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (MACM) in Southern
France, procured the helmets
between 2007 and 2009 from Munich and London, respectively, for an
estimated total of £250,000 ($329,362). Until recently, they had
been on view at MACM, which holds over 800 of Levett’s holdings,
spanning from antiquity to contemporary art.

Levett has begun to focus on
collecting contemporary pieces, citing the muddy provenances of
older and ancient works as part of the reason. He told the
Financial
Times last year that
since building the majority of his classical collection, he learned
that “the supply of works with impeccable provenance has shrunk
rapidly.”

“In my personal opinion, when
it’s clear beyond doubt, as in this case, that an object has been
illegally looted and illegally exported from a particular source
country, then I personally cannot see why anyone would want to
retain that piece in their collection, at the very least not
ethically speaking, and probably even legally. With that in mind,
the first thing to do I believe is to return it and that at least
solves the first problem, and the initial cultural crime at least
is cured,” Levett said in conversation with Artnet News.

“The second problem is who sold
it to you, and assuming they held themselves out to be experts in
the field, which presumably they did if you bought it from a
recognized professional and public source, like a relevant
registered dealer or auction house in the field, then surely the
onus is on them to pay you back. Then it’s their problem to go
after their source and sooner or later the perpetrators of the
crime at the end of the supply chain who sold the piece into the
consumer market should be found too, At least if it was looted
relatively recently,” he concluded. 

The last high-profile case of
heritage repatriation to Spain occurred in 2012, when $500 million
in coins swiped from the battleship Señora de las Mercedes, which sunk in 1804, was ordered returned by
US courts.

The post Seven Ancient Warrior Helmets Are Headed Back to
Spain After Their Owner Learned They Were Looted in the 1980s
appeared first on artnet News.