According to billionaire Leonard Stern, he is doing a “great thing” for art lovers in Greece and America. But some of Greece’s politicians, historians and art scholars beg to differ.
At the center of this controversy is an esteemed collection of antiquities from the Cyclade islands, off of the Greek coast, dating back thousands of years and worth millions of dollars.
Stern is returning the sculptural works to Greece, which is on a mission to reclaim its undocumented antiquities. Though Greece acknowledges there is no evidence that items in the collection had been illegally removed, skeptics question the arrangement Stern struck with the country.
“Without taking time to research the collection, the Greek ministry of culture is not knowing the provenances of the objects and even how many of them may be fakes,” Christos Tsirogiannis, associate professor at the Museum of Ancient Cultures at University of Aarhus in Denmark, told The Post. “The deal is completely embarrassing and unacceptable.”
“I am angry,” added Sia Anagnostopoulou, a member of Greece’s parliament. “We have all the legal tools and mechanisms, and we could, as a country, have the antiquities returned without conditions.”
Stern earned much of his $7-billion fortune through his family’s privately held Hartz Mountain Industries, a real estate development firm. He told The Post that he first became fascinated with these sculptural works at the age of 14 and spent decades putting together the collection of 161 pieces. Now, “dealing with the reality of my own mortality,” he wants the works to stay together after his passing.
“I see what happens to art collections,” Stern, 84, told The Post. “People die, the collection gets inherited; heirs split it up and the collection loses its magic. When this collection was in my home, if you saw it, you would understand its magical power.”
In a bid to insure that the magic remains, Stern worked with Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, to devise an elaborate plan that places the art with the non-profit Hellenic Ancient Cultural Institute, based in Delaware. As to why it was done this way, Stern will only say, “That’s how it was structured. My professionals worked with their professionals and that is how they structured it. It is what I was advised to do.”
According to an agreement approved by the Greek parliament, “the Greek State is the sole owner of the Collection.”
In the case of Stern, said Tsirofiannis, “Since he wants to repatriate the collection to Greece, it should be delivered to the nearest Greek embassy. That is what he should do.”
Instead, starting in November, 15 pieces will be displayed at Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens until 2024. Then, for at least 10 years, the collection will be loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for display. Fifteen years after that, parts of the collection will be shown at Greek museums in exchange for similar pieces being loaned to the Met by Greece. In 2049, Greece can grant the Met the right to exhibit the works for up to 25 more years. Otherwise, whatever remains at the Met will get shipped to Greece and be displayed there.
The arrangement was approved by Greece’s parliament, but not all MPs are pleased.
“I voted against it,” said Anagnostopoulou, who is also a history professor. “We asked Miss Mendoni to give us papers proving where the collection came from and that it was legally exported from Greece.” Anagnostopoulou told The Post that she has yet to see those documents. “They wanted to legalize the collection … Why the Greek ministry decided to do this is a mystery.”
This is a particularly touchy situation in light of the fact that Greece has long been plagued by the looting and illegal export of its most prized artifacts. “The repatriation should take place straightforwardly. Here we have unprovenanced antiquities being donated to a foundation and loaned to a museum, the Met, which is known to be involved in illegal antiquities acquisition,” said Tsirogiannis, referering to some $13 million in antiquities confiscated from the museum last month. “Then it winds up in the US for 25 to 50 years before they finally return to Greece. This is not repatriation. It is benefiting institutions that have no right to be involved at all. The biggest scandal is that this is being accepted by the Greek state.”
“I identified one piece coming from the notorious illicit antiques dealer Gianfranco Becchina,” he claimed to The Post, referencing an Italian antiquities dealer who, in 2011, was convicted as a trafficker of looted antiques.
Tsirogiannis claims to have identified, from photograph, a marble figure from Stern’s collection as matching a piece that Becchina possessed.
“They have at least one piece that matches [an antiquity] in the trafficker’s archive. It is the same piece that had been collected by Stern. Over 5,500 objects have passed through Becchina’s hands that have been shown to not be legal,” Tsirogiannis said, acknowledging that the piece in question is not necessarily illegitimate. “Leonard Stern should have proof of legal origin for every piece.”
Stern told The Post that all 161 works have been purchased from legitimate sources often vetted by the late scholar of Cycladic sculpture Pat Getz-Preziosi — and have strong pedigrees.
“Experts look at every piece. Sometimes they say it does not look right. Then I go back to the dealer and do not buy it,” said Stern. “Prior to [being part of] this collection, many of the pieces were displayed at the Getty and the Met. Then, when they came up for auction, I bought them.”
As for allegations that any of the pieces may have passed through the hands of alleged smuggler, Becchina, Stern staunchly insisted: “I know nothing about Becchina. I never bought anything from him. I never heard the guy’s name until last week. To my knowledge, these pieces have not been looted.”
He’s also in dumbfounded by the controversy: “I am shocked, really shocked, that somebody, for their own publicity, has crafted a negative here.”
Stern hopes that his approach will serve as a blueprint for other collectors of a certain age who want to see their collections remain intact. “Nobody has ever done anything like this,” he said. “Usually [countries such as Greece] fight to get their stuff back and don’t succeed. It’d be a very expensive and terribly difficult job. I wanted to find a long-term goal for this collection, where my grandchildren could see it, and I did.”