Editing Metropolitan Museum of Art (section)

== Looted art ==
{{See also|Looted art}}

One of the most serious and daunting challenges to the Metropolitan Museum's respectable reputation has been a series of allegations and lawsuits about its known status as an institutional buyer of looted and stolen antiquities. Since the 1990s the Met has been the subject of countless investigative reports and books critical of the Met's ''laissez-faire'' attitude to acquisition.<ref name="IllicitTombRaiders">Peter Watson, Cecilia Todeschini (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=jlcPcCuicKQC&q=Morgantina%20Met%20OR%20Metropolitan ''The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215012119/https://books.google.com/books?id=jlcPcCuicKQC&q=Morgantina%20Met%20OR%20Metropolitan |date=February 15, 2017 }}</ref><ref>Vernon Silver, ''The Lost Chalice: The Epic Hunt for a Priceless Masterpiece''. Harper Collins Books, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-06-188296-8}}</ref> The Met has lost several major lawsuits, notably against the governments of Italy and Turkey, which successfully sought the repatriation of hundreds of ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern antiquities, with a total value in the hundreds of millions of dollars.<ref name="IllicitTombRaiders" /> In August 2022, it was reported that the Cambodian government was pressuring the museum to return Khmer artifacts that were allegedly looted during the civil war and the tumultuous period following.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Mashberg |first1=Tom |last2=Bowley |first2=Graham |date=2022-08-18 |title=Cambodia Says It's Found Its Lost Artifacts: In Gallery 249 at the Met |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/arts/design/met-artifacts-cambodia.html |access-date=2022-09-05 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In September 2022, New York law enforcement, across three separate search warrants, seized 27 artifacts highlighting ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, with the intention of returning them to Italy and Egypt.<ref name="Mashberg-2022">{{Cite news |last1=Mashberg |first1=Tom |last2=Bowley |first2=Graham |date=2022-09-02 |title=Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiquities From the Met |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/arts/design/met-museum-looting.html |access-date=2022-09-05 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="Jernudd-2023">{{Cite web |last=Jernudd |first=Sigrid |date=2023-01-13 |title=The Return of Looted Art: Warnings from 2022 |url=https://www.hhrartlaw.com/2023/01/the-return-of-looted-art-warnings-from-2022/ |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=HHR Art Law |language=en-US}}</ref> These 27 objects were worth an aggregate total of $13 million.<ref name="Mashberg-2022" /> The items were seized due to their discovered link to known antiquities traffickers.<ref name="Jernudd-2023" /> This comes along with an international recalculation of what belongs in the museums of the world.<ref name="Mashberg-2022" /> Similar cases of repatriation conversations include the [[Elgin Marbles]], the [[Benin Bronzes]], and [[Montezuma's headdress|El Penacho]]. Along with the conversation about returning art, the art community is calling upon museological institutions to hold themselves to a higher standard of Social Justice, equity, and ethics.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=May 9, 2023 |title=After Seizures, the Met Sets a Plan to Scour Collections for Looted Art |website=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/arts/met-museum-looted-art.html}}</ref> On March 22, 2023, Manhattan prosecutors seized 15 allegedly stolen antiquities tied to [[Subhash Kapoor (art dealer)|Subhash Kapoor]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Woodman |first1=Spencer |last2=Politzer |first2=Malia |last3=Reuter |first3=Delphine |last4=Sharma |first4=Namrata |date=2023-03-20 |title='The stuff was illegally dug up': New York's Met Museum sees reputation erode over collection practices |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/20/new-york-metropolitan-museum-collection-artifacts-theft |access-date=2024-02-16 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In December 2023, the museum announced it will return 14 Khmer sculptures to Cambodia and 2 to Thailand after determining they were stolen and linked to art dealer [[Douglas Latchford]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-15 |title=New York's Metropolitan Museum will return stolen ancient sculptures to Cambodia and Thailand |url=https://apnews.com/article/new-york-met-art-cambodia-thailand-911ebc644de5778d182b7d7b0213e240 |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref>

=== Looted Indigenous American art and NAGPRA violations ===
{{See also|Visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

Since 1993, Charles and Valerie Diker have donated 139 Indigenous objects to the museum, many of which are funerary. Most of these objects have [[Provenance|ownership histories]] with 200–2,000 year gaps in known owners.<ref name="Sharp-2023" /> The display of Native American funerary objects is problematic, not just because of its unethical spotlighting of private ceremonial objects, but also due to its violation of [[Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act|NAGPRA]]. NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, established in 1990, states that institutions that receive federal funding must work to [[Repatriation|repatriate]] Native American [[Human remains (archaeology)|human remains]], [[Grave goods|funerary objects]], and other [[Ceremonial Objects|ceremonially important objects]].<ref name="www.nps.gov">{{Cite web |title=Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/index.htm |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> This was done to ensure that the respect and dignity deserved by all humans was given to Native Americans. Part of the goal of enacting NAGPRA was to begin a dialogue between American museum institutions and Indigenous groups. Written into NAGPRA is an acknowledgement of museums as the preservers of history.<ref name="www.nps.gov" /> The Met has been able to avoid the repatriation of valuable objects that fall under the grasp of NAGPRA because they have not formally owned them. Objects that are on permanent or semi-permanent loan to a museum do not legally necessitate the initiation of the repatriation process.<ref name="Sharp-2023" /> As the Diker collection is slowly incorporated into the Met's permanent collection, the objects will become illegal possessions, as the Met is a publicly funded institution.<ref name="Artforum-2023">{{Cite web |date=2023-04-25 |title=Propublica Inquiry Into Met's Native American Art Collection Reveals Provenance Issues |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/propublica-inquiry-into-mets-native-american-art-collection-reveals-provenance-issues-252675/ |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref>

In April 2023, [[ProPublica]] published a [https://www.propublica.org/article/the-met-museum-native-american-collections report] detailing the Indigenous American collections of the Met Museum. The report exposed the loophole of loan vs. own that the Met was using to cling onto objects that they had an ethical and legal responsibility to repatriate. The report came to the conclusion that the Native American art held by the Met could only have come into the possession of the Diker's through violence, [[looting]], and [[dispossession]]. Additionally, the report exposed that only 15% of the 193 objects donated to the Met by the Diker collection have known provenance.<ref name="Sharp-2023" /> The Report was the cause of international outcry due to its bold pinpointing of just some of the Met's shoddy [[Art Acquisition|acquisitioning]] history.<ref name="The Art Newspaper-2018">{{Cite web |date=2018-11-06 |title=Native American group denounces Met's exhibition of indigenous objects |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2018/11/06/native-american-group-denounces-mets-exhibition-of-indigenous-objects |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=The Art Newspaper – International art news and events}}</ref><ref name="Artforum-2023" /> This callout of the unequivocally respected institution that is the Met Museum caused a reckoning amongst museums displaying Indigenous American art.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-02 |title=North American museums face a reckoning on Indigenous rights |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/12/02/museums-face-reckoning-on-indigenous-representation |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=The Art Newspaper – International art news and events}}</ref> In response to this scandal, the Met claimed that they were in contact with tribal governments about creating appropriate displays of Native American art and funerary objects, but did not specify which tribes.<ref name="The Art Newspaper-2018" />

=== Head of a Griffin ===
In February 2025, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced the return of a 2,700-year-old bronze griffin head to Greece. The artifact, dating to the 7th century B.C., had been in the museum’s collection since 1950. An internal investigation, prompted by new information from Greek authorities and independent researchers, confirmed that the piece had been looted from an archaeological site before reaching the museum through a private collector.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bowley |first=Graham |date=2025-02-24 |title=Met Museum Returning Ancient Bronze Thought Stolen from Greek Museum |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/arts/design/met-museum-return-greek-griffin-head.html |access-date=2025-02-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==== Collecting practices ====
In response to many controversies, the museum issued a statement on [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collecting-practices collecting practices]. The statement encompasses all 1.5 million works of art held by the Met.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collecting Practices |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collecting-practices |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> Referencing research, transparency, and collaboration, this statement is a clear redefining of the Met's outlook on looted art and artwork with unknown histories. "As a pre-eminent voice in the global art community, it is incumbent upon the Met to engage more intensively and proactively in examining certain areas of our collection," stated Max Hollein, the director of the museum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Officer |first=Max Hollein <br> Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive |title=How We Collect: Research, Transparency, and Collaboration |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/articles/2023/3/how-we-collect |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=March 13, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> The Met hired a manager of provenance research with a team of three staff to assist the already-employed curators and historians.