FT announces $2 billion return of antiquities to countries of origin

More than 1 million ancient artifacts worth at least $2 billion were returned to their countries of origin between 1950 and the end of 2025, according to the Museum of Looted Antiquities (MOLA).

The project created the first comprehensive database of such cases, which took into account 1.06 million items returned primarily by museums, art dealers and private collectors. It includes valuables stolen by criminal groups, removed by colonial authorities, seized from indigenous peoples or not returned after temporary transfer, with works of art, particularly paintings, largely excluded.

“The problem is that we have no data on either the scope or the scale of the problem. “We see headlines, we can think about notable cases, but no one [so far] has put it all together,” said MOLA director Jason Felch.

The number of cases of repatriation of works of art has been increasing since the mid-1990s, and since 2020 the growth has accelerated. In 2024, the last full year for which the project has data, nearly 150 such cases were recorded. Felch also noted the change in the attitude of museums to the return of values: in the past, institutions actually offered to seek them through the courts, but now “this culture has changed.”.

Among the countries that have achieved the greatest results in the return of values, the FT names Egypt, Italy and Saudi Arabia - each received more than 30,000 items. The report attributes this to the consistent participation of the authorities, the work of specialized law enforcement units and public organizations.

Most of the valuables were returned from the United States: 81 American museums donated 101 thousand items. Separately, the total statistics include 595,000 Peruvian gold and silver coins from the Black Swan hoard, raised from the sunken Spanish ship of the XIX century. They were returned to Spain in 2012.

In September, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Robert Whitman, who specializes in the return of cultural property, spoke about an increase in the number of thefts from museums, the damage from which exceeded €100 million. According to him, most high-profile crimes are committed according to the primitive scheme “broke, grabbed, ran away”.