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Thieves, merchants and sheikhs: The centuries-old odyssey of Alexander the Great's head

2026-07-30 19:08:45Histori SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Marble head of Alexander the Great

The archaeologist who dug it out of the ground, the thieves and smugglers who smuggled it away, an Armenian art dealer, a Greek professor of archaeology and his student, a sheikh from Qatar and a gallery owner in Manhattan.

Many hands have held the marble head of Alexander the Great for more than a century, as it traveled from Rome to New York, Cairo, Doha, London, and Maastricht.

The odyssey ended in April of this year, when the 1st century AD sculpture, missing from the Basilica Emilia in the Roman Forum, was returned to Italy along with 336 other archaeological objects trafficked to the United States.

This is the story reconstructed by the investigations of the Italian Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit and the New York Prosecutor's Office. Now, Alexander's head is expected to be placed in the Museum of the Roman Forum, where authorities will decide whether it will be exhibited to the public or remain available to researchers.

A stolen work of art, like a fugitive

"A stolen work of art is like a person on the run. It remains hidden until an intuition or a coincidence leads the investigation in the right direction," explain Italian investigators.

In this case, that's exactly what happened.

Considered lost for nearly a century, the sculpture resurfaced in 2018 in the online catalog of the Maastricht Art Fair, exhibited by the Safani Gallery in Manhattan. The then-director of the Roman Forum Archaeological Park immediately recognized it as the work she had been searching for for years.

The first theft

The story begins between 1909 and 1910, when the sculpture was discovered during archaeological excavations and recorded as part of the group known as the "Statues of the Orientals", which adorned the Basilica Emilia.

It is not known exactly when it was stolen, but it is known that before 1960 it was lost.

During an inventory, archaeologists noticed its absence, but in the absence of evidence of a theft, the object was simply registered as “lost,” without a criminal report being filed. This practice, common at the time, made it much more difficult to trace.

From Italy to the USA

After leaving Italy, it is believed that the sculpture was smuggled out of the country by traffickers specializing in artwork, although how it crossed the border has never been clarified.

In 1974 it appeared at a Sotheby's auction in New York as part of the collection of Armenian art dealer Hagop Kevorkian. With no documents to prove its origin, the sculpture was sold for just $650 to a company called Altertum Ltd., which later turned out to be a shell company.

From Cairo to Chicago

For nearly four decades, there was no trace of it. It was not until 2011 that Alexander's head reappeared at a Sotheby's auction.

The seller was Martin CJ Miller, a British scholar and antiquarian based in Chicago. He stated that he had inherited the sculpture from his mentor, the renowned Greek archaeologist Nicholas Oikonomides, who, he said, had purchased it in Cairo between 1984 and 1986.

From Qatar to return to Italy

At auction, the work was purchased for $92,000 by a Qatari sheikh. After six years in the Middle East, it was sent to London, where it was exhibited by the Ali Al Thani Foundation, linked to the former Qatari Minister of Culture and one of the world's largest art collectors.

There it caught the attention of Manhattan gallery owner Alan Safani. After checking stolen art databases and finding no reports, he bought it in good faith for $152,000, with the intention of reselling it.

In 2018, the sculpture was prepared to be exhibited at the Maastricht Art Fair. It was there that it was recognized by the leaders of the Roman Forum, who notified the Italian authorities. After the denunciation, the New York Prosecutor's Office seized the work from the Safani Gallery.

After a long legal battle, Italy managed to recover the sculpture. Thus ended the 100-year journey of Alexander the Great's head./ La Repubblica


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