Museum head: The "Treasures of Croesus" were incomplete when I got them
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Following the arrest this week of 9 people in connection with the theft of the central piece from the "Treasures of Croesus" permanent exhibit at the Usak Archeological Museum, the director of the Usak museum, Kazim Akbiyikoglu, has told police that the "Treasures of Croesus" were in fact incomplete when he received them in 1996.
Akbiyikoglu, who is currently under arrest for allegations that he was directly involved with the disappearence of the central artifact from the show, the golden "Winged Sea-Horse Brooch," told investigators that he himself brought the 363 piece exhibition back from the US in 1993, but that he delivered it not to Usak Archeological Museum, but to the Ankara Anatolian Civilizations Museum, where it stayed until 1996.
The reason for the 3 year stop-over in Ankara was that the Usak Archeological Museum was being renovated during this time period. Akbiyikoglu told police that he had noted in 1996 that one piece was missing from the collection when it arrived from Ankara, but that it was only in March 2006 that he had realized that the "Winged Sea-Horse Brooch" had been replaced by a fake.
Akbikiyoglu has suggested to investigators that perhaps the "Winged Sea-Horse Brooch" was in fact replaced by a fake during its stay in the US. The "Treasures of Croesus" were kept by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art for a decade or so, after having been dug up illegally in Turkey by villagers, who, realizing the price of the artifacts on the world market, made several sales to foreign art dealers. Turkey finally received the exhibition back from the Metropolitan Museum after a court case which took years and cost millions of dollars.