Photo taken on Sept. 14, 2017 shows containers of a three-ton marble Hercules sarcophagus at the Antalya airport in Turkey. The Roman sarcophagus of Hercules, a valuable archeological find, returned Wednesday evening after a legal saga to its Turkish homeland from Switzerland, representing a major achievement for Ankara's aggressive effort to bring back looted Anatolian artifacts. (Xinhua/Mustafa Kaya)
by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Roman sarcophagus of Hercules, a valuable archeological find, returned Wednesday evening after a legal saga to its Turkish homeland from Switzerland, representing a major achievement for Ankara's aggressive effort to bring back looted Anatolian artifacts.
The three-ton marble sarcophagus, a "culturally priceless object" according to experts, was brought back from Geneva to Istanbul aboard a Turkish Airlines plane.
A Swiss court ruled in 2015 that it should be returned to Turkey which has been seeking his return since 2011.
The sarcophagus is believed to be sculpted around the end of the 2nd Century in the ancient city of Dokimion, now Antalya, when the area was under Roman rule. It was smuggled out of Turkey in the late 1960s.
The ancient Roman artifact, which depicts the Twelve Labors of Hercules, was on display at the Geneva University Museum of Arts and History before returning to Turkey. It was delivered Thursday to the Antalya Museum where it will be showcased.
"This is a major achievement and will constitute an example for other stolen Turkish artifacts in other countries. We are very happy that this object has finally returned to its land of origin," Turkey's Ambassador to Switzerland Ilhan Saygili told Xinhua.
"There are some 30 examples of such sarcophagus in the world, and the Hercules sarcophagus is one of the two best preserved ones," the diplomat said.
The owner of the sarcophagus, a Lebanese art dealer, allegedly purchased the object in the 1990s. He claimed that his father bought the artifact legally, but didn't appeal the Swiss courts decision to restitute the sculpture to Turkey.
Turkey has lost many of its ancient treasures to thieves and black marketers. It has been training custom officers to identify stolen artifacts and compiled an efficient catalogue of thousands of pieces in the hands of foreign countries.
Since 2003, Turkey has been pursuing legal proceedings for the retrieval of numerous artifacts.
Because of Turkey's efforts and a powerful antiquities bureaucracy, some artifacts have been returned. A total of 4,269 objects have been brought back between 2003 and 2016, according to figures by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
"We have a special department and a team who are working meticulously to hunt objects that are in the hands of governments and private collectors. The task is very difficult because laws in this regard are sometimes ambiguous," a government official, who asks to remain anonymous as civil servants are not allowed to speak to the press, told Xinhua.
"This time we were lucky because Switzerland doesn't have any other major Turkish artifacts and the federal justice seemed to be on our side, but this is rarely the case," he said.
In April, a 5000-year-old Anatolian female marble figurine that was smuggled from Turkey, sold for 14.5 million U.S. dollars during an auction in New York, despite Turkey's legal objections which were ultimately rejected by a district judge.
"I think we have managed to raise awareness in Turkey but also in foreign countries for our rightful claims of our stolen cultural property. The Culture and Tourism Ministry is very successful in this field," Saygili said, hoping that the return of the Hercules sarcophagus would constitute a "precedent" for other artifacts still abroad.
While praising the government's efforts, experts believe that a global coordination and especially a cultural awareness is needed in a country that hosted so many civilizations, from the Greeks, Romans, Sumerians, Hittites, Byzantine and Ottoman empires.
"We think that the government is doing a very good job but it is not enough. Education is crucial for protecting the cultural heritage of Turkey. It should be taught in schools," Dr. Soner Atesogullari, president of Turkish Archeologists Association, told Xinhua.
He also expressed concern for artifacts which are on Turkish soil but have been discarded because of general lack of interest, saying much of Turkey's population does not see the value in historical monuments.
A considerable number of users commented Wednesday on social media that the Hercules sarcophagus would perhaps have been better off in Switzerland as "the real tomb-diggers and robbers are generally Turkish."
Each year, Turkish authorities arrest dozens of people accused of illegal excavations.
Several ancient sites have been robbed or fallen victims to modern industrial schemes. One of them is the 12,000-year-old Hasankeyf settlement famous for hundreds of man-made caves, which faces imminent destruction because of a dam project.
The Ilisu dam project, part of the major hydroelectric Southeast Anatolian project (GAP), is expected to raise the level of the Tigris river at Hasankeyf and submerge most of the ancient city and surrounding villages including numerous historical monuments, despite protests and opposition of locals, civil society organizations and archeology lovers.
Hasankeyf is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, where some 20 civilizations flourished.
The Turkish government insists that the dam is crucial and will help produce much needed energy in the necessitous and mainly Kurdish populated region.
Archeology can sometimes be used as a political leverage between two countries.
Germany and other EU countries have accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of cultural chauvinism and even blackmail when Ankara reportedly threatened to bar foreign archeologists from excavations if their governments refuse to return the artifacts smuggled abroad.
Turkey is also disputing with the Louvre museum in Paris, which refused to return objects with a contested provenance and acquired through unethical circumstances during the colonial area.
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is also being asked to return some artifacts. The Pergamon Altar, collected by a museum in Berlin, and transported to Germany during the Ottoman period, is also a contentious object.
In recent years, some of Turkey's cultural property has been brought back following a legal and diplomatic battle. To name a few: the 3,300-year-old Bosporus village Sphinx, the antique Greek Heracles sculpture's upper half and the winged seahorse broach.
"We are extremely happy with this restitution. There have been many objects returned to Turley but we have to know that this is really just the tip of the iceberg," Professor Havva Isik, president of the archeology department of the Akdeniz University in Antalya, told Anadolu Agency.
"There are simply too many objects actually in private collections abroad that we are even not aware that they have been looted or smuggled because there is no official record," she said, implying that the Turkish hunt for its stolen history will take many more years.
