In one of the biggest operations against artifact smugglers, Turkish security forces raided locations in 38 provinces on Tuesday, with arrest warrants for 143 suspects. Dubbed "Operation Heritage," raids targeted suspects who sent artifacts extracted in illegal excavations for sale in auction houses abroad.
Operations were based in the central province of Konya and were the culmination of an investigation that lasted for about one year. Anti-smuggling and organized crime units of police, with arrest warrants issued by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Seydişehir district, seized a trove of artifacts in operations. The number of suspects captured was not disclosed yet. Seydişehir is known for its rich history as the home of Neolithic civilizations, Hittites, Seljuks and Ottomans, along with Roman rule. Most of the artifacts extracted in the district are on display in the Konya Museum of Archaeology.
Quoting security sources, media outlets reported that the smuggling ring was divided into four groups. One group included "diggers" who did the hard work and illegally dug archaeological sites and other preserved areas. They delivered the precious artifacts they found to "collectors." The "collectors" then forwarded them to "marketers," who were ringleaders and responsible for marketing artifacts to auction houses in other countries. A fourth group named "couriers" were behind the smuggling of the artifacts abroad.
It was one of those "couriers," a truck driver, who helped authorities to reveal the extent of smuggling. The driver was caught red-handed as he tried to send 1,736 artifacts to an auction house in Britain via cargo through Austria. An examination by Culture and Tourism Ministry experts discovered that the majority of artifacts had their origins in Anatolia, therefore, the property of Turkey.
Investigating the bank accounts of the suspects, security forces discovered that the ringleader was wired a large amount of money by six auction houses in Europe and the United States and other people, and the money was divided between members of the ring.
The operation also thwarted the sale of a Byzantine-era empire seal smuggled from Turkey at an auction house in Switzerland for 28,000 Swiss francs ($29,144), media outlets reported.
A cradle of multiple civilizations, Turkey was late to prevent the smuggling of its artifacts abroad and in some cases, turned a blind eye to the issue in the past. In recent years, it launched a new legal battle to recover Anatolian heritage taken abroad. In 2021, the country recovered some 3,480 of its cultural assets thanks to the efforts of the country's anti-smuggling authorities. The process for recovering artifacts involves multiple state agencies, including law enforcement and judicial authorities, as well as diplomatic efforts and legal cases with the countries where the artifacts are found. The policy to take cultural assets abroad without official permission was outlawed in the Ottoman Empire in 1906 and continues under the Republic of Turkey founded in 1923. Under current legislation that has been in place since then, unlicensed excavation is illegal, as is failing to report any uncovered artifacts to the authorities.
One of the most prominent recoveries was from the United States when hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt was forced to surrender 14 artifacts of Turkish origin to the country.