The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Hellenic Republic of Greece Announce the Return of Ancient Bronze Head of a Griffin

The Met and the Greek Ministry’s agreement for the return of the bronze is supported by collaborative research revealing that it illegitimately left the Archaeological Museum of Olympia in the 1930s

 

The return follows the launch of The Met’s Cultural Property Initiative, which includes a focused review of works in the collection by the Museum’s Head of Provenance and the hiring of additional dedicated provenance researchers

 

On February 25, Max Hollein will host Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and a panel of experts from the Museum and the Greek Ministry of Culture to discuss innovative cultural and scientific collaboration

 

 

(New York, February 24, 2025)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Hellenic Republic of Greece announced today that it will return a 7th century BCE Bronze Head of a Griffin to Greece. The repatriation follows the launch of The Met’s Cultural Property Initiative, which includes undertaking a focused review of works in the collection as well as creating a new Head of Provenance position and hiring additional provenance researchers.

 

One of the finest existing cast-bronze griffins' heads, this object has been prominently displayed at the entrance to The Met’s Greek and Roman galleries since 1999 and has been installed in the galleries since its acquisition in 1972. As stated in the official find report presented by the Greek Ministry of Culture to the Museum, the Griffin was originally found by chance in the bed of the Kladeos River in Olympia in 1914 by the curator of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, who placed it in the library of the museum, where it remained un-inventoried until its disappearance in the 1930s. According to The Met’s archives, this Bronze Head of a Griffin was donated to the Museum in 1972 as part of the bequest of Walter C. Baker. Baker had purchased it in 1948 from Joseph Brummer in New York, who acquired it in 1936 from an antique dealer in Athens. The Met and the Greek Ministry agreed to the return of the Griffin after careful review of records and letters determining that it could not have legitimately left the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. The Met will return the Griffin to Greece and is looking forward to displaying it on loan by Greece to The Met for a planned special exhibition in 2026.

 

The Met and Greece recently announced a landmark 50-year partnership with the Greek government and the Museum of Cycladic Art, along with the Hellenic Ancient Cultural Institute, regarding Leonard N. Stern’s Collection of Cycladic art that brought 161 stunning Cycladic artifacts from the Leonard N. Stern Collection—which includes nearly all the major types of Cycladic marble figurines representing the Late Neolithic period to the end of the Early Bronze Age—to The Met for a long display, to be followed by a series of cultural exchanges and opportunities.

 

The Stern Collection will be the focus of a panel on February 25, as part of The Met’s “Cultural Heritage Now” convening series that began in spring 2023. Experts from The Met and the Greek Ministry of Culture will discuss the innovative cultural and scientific collaboration between the Museum and Greece and reveal recent findings. Previous “Cultural Heritage Now” panels have highlighted provenance research underway at The Met, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; international partnerships, featuring presentations on the Rubin Museum’s partnership in Nepal and The Met’s Indian Conservation Fellowship Program; the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act and its ongoing impact on communities and museums; and most recently, on the future of museums and how they can be at the center of learning and cultural exchange while exploring the upcoming reopening of the completely renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.

 

About The Met’s Cultural Property Initiative

In spring 2023, The Met announced a suite of initiatives related to cultural property and collecting practices that include undertaking a focused review of works in the collection; hiring additional provenance researchers to join the many researchers and curators already doing this work at the Museum; further engaging staff and trustees; and using The Met’s platform to support and contribute to public discourse on this topic. In March 2024, The Met announced the appointment of Lucian Simmons to the role of Head of Provenance. Building on the Museum’s many decades of extensive provenance research and information sharing across numerous areas, there are now 11 new and expanded provenance research positions at The Met.

 

In February 2024, The Met and the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining future cooperation on educational initiatives, exhibitions, and exchanges of scholarship and expertise, building on a decades-long partnership that has yielded many important collaborations, most recently the exhibition Tree & Serpent. Early Buddhist Art in India in 2023. The Museum has similar partnerships in place with the Kingdom of Thailand; Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments; the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea; and the Republic of Italy.

 

In April 2024, The Met initiated the transfer of ownership of a third-millennium BCE Sumerian sculpture to the Republic of Iraq, after provenance research by Met scholars established that the work rightfully belongs to Iraq. Other recent agreements include the transfer of ownership of two stone sculptures to the Republic of Yemen, which resulted in a historic custodial agreement stating that The Met will care for and display the stone sculptures until Yemen wishes to have them returned. Following that agreement, 14 ancient sculptures that were voluntarily repatriated to the Republic of Yemen from the Hague family collection located in New Zealand, were loaned to The Met by the Republic of Yemen who requested that the objects be held at the Museum, where they will be studied and catalogued, until Yemen requests their return. In October 2023, through ongoing engagement with the Nepalese government The Met returned a 13th-century wooden temple strut and stone stele of a Vishnu triad.

 

The Met has launched object webpages for all restituted works of art—specifying that the object has been returned and to what country—as part of a commitment to transparency. The Museum has also embraced a New York State law passed in August 2022 that requires museums to publicly identify any artworks in their collection that changed hands in Europe during the Nazi era (1933–1945) due to involuntary means, with more than 50 updated object labels now installed.

 

Restituted in February 2025

 

Bronze head of a griffin

Greek

third quarter of the 7th century BCE

From Olympia

Bronze cauldrons set on tripods or conical stands were among the most spectacular votive gifts dedicated in Greek sanctuaries from the eighth to the sixth centuries B.C. Cast-bronze griffins' heads often decorated the cauldron rims; they projected outward from the shoulder of the vessel on long necks made of hammered or cast bronze. Some of the dedicated cauldrons were colossal. The Greek historian Herodotus describes one made for King Kroisos of Lydia that could hold 2,700 gallons and another dedicated on the island of Samos that was supported by huge kneeling figures. Over six hundred bronze griffins' heads from cauldrons are known today; most have been found at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia or at that of Hera on Samos. This enormous head is one of the finest.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255367