[MSN] Insider theft. Museum boss held for stealing riches of Croesus; Winged seahorse brooch was substituted with a fake

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

May 29, 2006 


Museum boss held for stealing riches of Croesus
By Jenny Booth and agencies
 
Winged seahorse brooch was substituted with a fake 

Photo:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2201884,00.html
  
The director of a Turkish state museum has been arrested over an alleged
plot to steal the riches of Croesus and substitute the golden treasure for
fakes.

Kazim Akbiyikoglu, the head of the Usak museum in western Turkey, was among
nine people to be held after several ancient artefacts were found to have
been switched for counterfeit copies.
 
A golden brooch in the shape of a winged seahorse and a golden coin are
among the pieces found to have been swapped for fakes, according to Atilla
Koc, the Turkish Tourism Minister.

Stories of the fabulous wealth of the king of Lydia in what is now western
Turkey during the 6th Century BC have bequeathed the phrase "as rich as
Croesus". Croesus was believed to be the first king to order coins to be
minted as money, using the gold from his mines and panned from the sands of
the River Pactolus.

But the ruthless and arrogant monarch was stripped of all of his riches and
nearly of his life when Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered his realm. 

Investigators said in a report that the theft probably occurred between
March and August 2005, and that the switch could not have been carried out
"without the knowledge of museum authorities," the Turkish daily newspaper
Milliyet reported yesterday.

Kayhan Kavas, the governor of Usak, confirmed today that police had detained
nine suspects, including Usak Museum's director, Mr Akbiyikoglu.

Prosecutors have been investigating the theft since December, when
authorities received an anonymous tip-off. The treasures spent three years
in a museum in Ankara before ending up back in Usak. One object - a golden
bird figure - was stolen during the return, Milliyet said.

The brooch was one of 363 artifacts from the so-called "Lydian Hoard" that
was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum from an American dealer-smuggler in
the 1960s. Some 30 years later, the museum acknowledged that it knew the
pieces were stolen when it purchased them, and returned them to Turkey in
1993. It was one of the largest group of art objects ever returned.