Türkiye has recovered the 13th mosaic panel belonging to the ancient Zeugma composition following its return from the United States. The panel was placed at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep during a ceremony attended by Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
The panel dates to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD and is part of the same composition as the figure widely known as the “Gypsy Girl,” one of Türkiye’s most recognised cultural symbols. Minister Ersoy said Türkiye has recovered 13,454 cultural artefacts from abroad over the past 23 years, with 9,139 of those returned in the last 8 years.
“We are celebrating bringing the 13th panel from the same composition, dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, to our Zeugma Mosaic Museum,” said Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Culture and Tourism Minister. “Research by Dr Camila Felag from Grenoble Alpes University and scientific assessments by Zeugma excavation director Prof Dr Kutalmış Görkay established that the panel likely belonged to this large composition.”
Ersoy said Turkish authorities identified the panel had been listed for sale during international auction monitoring efforts. “We renewed our repatriation request without delay. The process carried out by the United States Homeland Security Investigations unit was completed successfully, securing the artefact’s return to our country,” he said.
The ceremony, held at the site where the panel was installed, was attended by Gaziantep Governor Kemal Çeber, Gaziantep Metropolitan Mayor Fatma Şahin, AK Party Gaziantep Provincial Chair Fatih Muhaddis Fedaioğlu, Nationalist Movement Party Gaziantep Provincial Chair Mehmet Sait Kılıç, Director General of Cultural Heritage and Museums Birol İnceciköz, and Head of the Department for Combating Smuggling at the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage and Museums Zeynep Boz.
Illegal excavations in the 1960s scattered numerous panels from the same floor mosaic composition outside Türkiye. In 2018, 12 panels belonging to the same mosaic held at Bowling Green State University in the United States were returned to Türkiye and displayed at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.
Following that repatriation, replicas crafted from Euphrates stone by Gaziantep artisans, with support from Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, were completed at the Gaziantep Restoration and Conservation Regional Laboratory and delivered to Bowling Green State University in 2022.
Ersoy said cooperation with the United States on cultural heritage protection has enabled the return of numerous artefacts in recent years. He pointed to a Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Property signed in 2021, which was extended this year for a new 5 year term.
Ersoy said joint efforts with the New York County District Attorney’s Office and the US Homeland Security Investigations unit since 2021 have brought back multiple artefacts originating from the ancient city of Boubon, including statues of Lucius Verus and Septimius Severus, as well as a statue of Marcus Aurelius returned after a 65 year effort.
He added that investigations tracing artefacts of Anatolian origin are ongoing and that further repatriations are expected.
Ersoy noted that artefact recovery efforts are not limited to the United States. He recalled that a funerary stele known as the “Satornila Stele,” stolen from the ancient city of Zeugma, was returned to Türkiye in 2023 following work with Italian authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The stele dates back approximately 1,800 years.
“Every cultural asset has its own story, a context it belongs to, and a whole it completes,” said Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Culture and Tourism Minister. “As missing pieces return, we are not only completing a mosaic. We are repairing a damaged memory, filling gaps in the pages of history, and reuniting a cultural value with the whole it belongs to.”
Ersoy said Türkiye has recovered 13,454 cultural artefacts since 2002, with 9,139 of those returned in the last 8 years, adding that the country is now considered a global example in the fight against cultural property trafficking.
“Our main goal in this struggle is to establish a preventive and holistic approach to combating cultural property trafficking, both in terms of public awareness and institutional cooperation, and to make this permanent and sustainable,” Ersoy said. “We will continue working with the same determination, belief and resolve until every cultural asset illegally removed from these lands returns to where it belongs.”
