‘Bintepeler necklace’ on display at Anatolian Civilizations Museum

A 2,700-year-old necklace that was unearthed at the Bintepeler archaeological site in the western province of Manisa and illegally smuggled to the U.S. has been returned to Türkiye after a legal battle and is now at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara.

"If you include an Anatolian-origin artifact in your collection illegally, sooner or later, Türkiye's Culture and Tourism Ministry will become aware of it and will bring it back to the country through a significant legal effort," Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said.

As part of the Ankara Culture Road Festival, Ersoy visited the "Kaçış Yok" (No Way Out) exhibition on the fight against cultural property smuggling and the "Yeryüzü Rüyaları: Anadolu" (Dreams of Earth: Anatolia) exhibition at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum.

While speaking in front of the gold necklace, which was smuggled to the U.S. from the Bintepeler archaeological site in Manisa and returned to Türkiye by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Ersoy noted that the necklace was delivered to the New York Consulate General on Sept. 3.

He mentioned that the exhibition consists of artifacts brought back from the U.S. and Switzerland, as well as those seized within Türkiye's borders.

"Last year, we organized this event for the first time in collaboration with UNESCO. We aim to raise awareness of our citizens. The most important tool in fighting against smuggling is the active involvement of our citizens. If you want to intimidate treasure hunters, you need to intimidate buyers. These artifacts were brought to the U.S. in the 1970s and exhibited by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The museum officials suspected the artifacts were of Anatolian origin and informed us about them. Getting such information...