The tug-of-war over cultural treasures has nudged forward with a glint of gold as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) agrees to repatriate a flashy piece of the past to the Republic of Türkiye. The item in question—a gold and carnelian necklace with a backstory shadier than a bazaar merchant's tent—was allegedly lifted from a burrow somewhere near the village of Kendirlik, Bintepeler back in '76.
In a not-so-proud moment for the Boston art scene, it turns out this necklace probably belonged to a resident of the afterlife, residing in one of over a hundred tumuli that dot the Bintepeler landscape. Following a tip-off about grave raiders in the area, Manisa's very own Indiana Jones-types scooped up beads and baubles akin to the MFA's trinket, while the necklace itself took a roundabout trip via London to find a new home in Boston back in '82. A case of finders weepers for the MFA, as the official press release quietly cedes.
"It is likely that the MFA necklace originated at the same tumulus," admits the MFA sophomorically, connecting the dots between the pilfered beads and their less-travelled cousins now housed in Manisa Museum. The MFA played the innocent buyer card, having acquired the necklace without a full backstory—just a vague note that it came from 'Asia Minor', which is as helpful as saying it hailed from 'somewhere in the old world'.
Scholars were the ones ringing the alarm bells, spotting literature on the tomb's looting faster than a hawk spots lunch. This prompted the MFA to roll up their sleeves and dive into their own research. Eventually, they got cozy with the Turkish Consul General in Boston, leading to Türkiye's experts chipping in with scientific and archival research to wrap up this ancient neckwear narrative.
So it looks like the gold and carnelian necklace will be boarding a one-way flight back to Türkiye after over four decades of playing tourist. The MFA, meanwhile, holds up its end of the educational bargain by serving as a cultural crossroads, beckoning art lovers to its halls filled with nearly half a million objects that whisper, not shout, the varied sagas of human toil and triumph. As for visiting hours, the MFA is open for your viewing pleasure six days a week—unless you fancy perusing priceless art pieces on a Tuesday, that is.
