Michael Steinhardt Collection

Michael Steinhardt Collection

American hedge fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt was among the leading private collectors of antiquities in the United States until December 2021, when he agreed to an unprecedented lifetime ban on buying ancient art to resolve a multi-year criminal investigation brought by the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

Steinhardt also agreed to surrender 180 stolen antiquities worth an estimated USD $70 million that "were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable provenance prior to appearing on the international art market," according to New York authorities.

The 2021 case was only the latest time Steinhardt had been caught purchasing looted antiquities from well-known traffickers over the years. His 1991 purchase of a looted golden phiale triggered a legal dispute in which Steinhardt unsuccessfully challenged the US government's seizure of the bowl all the way to the Supreme Court, and was followed by several additional seizures of antiquities over the following two decades.

The Statement of Facts filed at the conclusion of the 2021 criminal investigation contains a remarkable record of one collector's 40 year buying spree of looted antiquities, detailing the objects, prices and trafficking networks he did business with. "Since at least 1987 Steinhardt has been acquiring and selling antiquities, totaling more than 1,000 antiquities valued at more than USD $200,000,000 at the time of their purchase and doubling in value since," investigators found. Of the 1,000 antiquities that Steinhardt acquired, "only 7.3% had any specific provenance that could be verified by this Office."

The Steinhardt criminal investigation began in 2017 when authorities looked into his acquisition of a Bull's Head looted from Sidon that he loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was a longtime supporter. A series of search warrants served against Steinhardt and his suppliers turned up further evidence that the collector had been purchasing antiquities that were recently looted from Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Libya and Bulgaria, records show.

Court records detailed Steinhardt's ties to multiple trafficking networks, including: Giacomo Medici (24 antiquities); Gianfranco Becchina (11 antiquities); Edoardo Almagià (10 antiquities); Robin Symes (12 antiquities); Robert Hecht (45 antiquities); Edward and Samuel Merrin (4 antiquities); Robert Haber (2 antiquities); Eugene Alexander (7 antiquities); Fritz and Harry Bürki (1 antiquity); Gil Chaya (30 antiquities); Rafi Brown (28 antiquities); Pasquale Camera (1 antiquity); George Ortiz (1 antiquity); Noriyoshi Horiuchi (1 antiquity); Michael Ward (1 antiquity); Svyatoslav Konkin (1 antiquity); Axel Gordian Weber (1 antiquity).

The criminal investigation ended in 2021 when Steinhardt agreed to enter into a "non-prosecution agreement" with the Manhattan District Attorney's office that allowed him to avoid a criminal trial by accepting a lifetime ban on antiquities collecting and forfeiting 178 objects from his collection valued at nearly USD$70 million.

178

Various

Various

Michael Steinhardt

Italy

Greece

Türkiye

Lebanon

Bulgaria

Egypt

Syria

Libya

Damien Huffer

Jason Felch

Jason Felch