Dr. Mohammed Faraj Mohammed Al-Fallos (left), Chair, Department of Antiquities, Libya and Dr. William M. Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.Cleveland Museum of Art
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Museum of Art has finalized an agreement to transfer ownership of small, ancient statue to the government of Libya.
The 2,200-year-old statue of a man, which has been in the museum’s collection since 1991, dates to the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt and is believed to have been looted from the Ptolemais Museum in modern-day Libya during World War II.
The museum and the government of Libya have been in negotiations over the statue since 2023 when the Libyan Department of Antiquities first requested an acknowledgment that the statue had been taken from the country illegally during the war. The two sides signed an agreement in principle in May 2024, recognizing the statue as the property of Libya.
The statue, which stands just 22 inches tall, is made of black basalt, a hard volcanic rock formed from lava. The Cleveland museum received it in 1991 as a 75th- anniversary donation from collector Lawrence A. Fleischman given in honor of Arielle P. Kozloff, then the museum’s curator of ancient art and a specialist in Egyptian art.
The Fleischmans are thought to have acquired the sculpture in 1966.
The museum began to investigate its provenance after the government of Libya reached out in 2023, eventually concluding that “that the sculpture rightfully belongs to Libya.”
The statue will remain on view in Cleveland for several years as a loan. It can be seen in the museum’s Gallery 107, home to its Egyptian collection, with a new label acknowledging Libya as the rightful owner.
“We appreciate the willingness of the Cleveland Museum of Art to work with the Department [of Antiquities] in accomplishing the transfer of this important work,” said Dr. Mohammed Faraj Mohammed Al-Fallos, chair of the Department of Antiquities of Libya.
“We look forward to continued cooperation with the Museum.”
“We are pleased with the collaboration and open dialogue we have had with our colleagues in the Department of Antiquities and look forward to the opportunity this agreement presents for enhanced cultural exchange with Libya,” said Dr. William M. Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The announcement comes on the heels of an agreement with Turkey on another statue earlier this month.
An ancient Greco-Roman bronze statue that New York’s District Attorney said was looted from a site in Turkey will be displayed a final time at the Cleveland Museum of Art before its return to the Turkish government.
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