American billionaire Michael Steinhardt was banned by the end of his life to buy antiques

He demonstrated “predatory appetite to stolen artifacts,” the prosecutor said

The American financier, philanthropist and art collector Michael Styinhardt made a deal with the investigation in the case of buying stolen values ​​from around the world. This was announced on December 6 by the office of the district prosecutor Manhattan Sayirus Wans - the youngest.

Under the terms of the transaction, Steinhardt confiscated 180 artifacts with a total value of $ 70 million and forbidden him to buy antiques (the prosecutor called such a ban on unprecedented). At the same time, no accusations against the collector were brought forward.

81-year-old Styinhardt earned his fortune using the Head Fund Steinhardt Partners, which he discovered in the 1960s. For almost 30 years, people who invested in this fund received on average almost 25% arrived annually, which made Steinhardt the best trader Wall Street, Forbes wrote several years ago. At the moment, the magazine is assessing the state of Steinhardt of $ 1.2 billion.

The financier also gained fame as a philanthropist and a collector. In his collection there are paintings by Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Cezanne fields. Steinhardt transferred some of the values ​​he bought to museums. One of the galleries of the Museum of Metro in New York bears his name. He also supported the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (there he was named the greenhouse in honor of him), the University of New York (there his name is the school of culture, education and human development) and Jewish charitable organizations.

The investigation to buy stolen values ​​against Steinhardt began in 2017. Then the office of the district prosecutor Manhattan found out that the billionaire leased the Metro Museum of the Metro statue in the form of the head of the bull, which was stolen from Lebanon during the Civil War of the 1970-1980s. It also turned out that at home and in the office of Steinhardt there may be other stolen values.

The investigation against the billionaire became international - 11 countries connected to him, which were supposed to suffer from his actions. The investigation has checked more than a thousand artifacts that the financier has acquired since the late 1980s, and came to the conclusion that 180 of them were stolen. Basically, they were stolen during mass unrest in a particular country.

Prosecutor Cyrus Wans - the younger said that Steinhardt “demonstrated a predatory appetite for stolen artifacts for decades, not worried about the legality of his actions, the legality of the values ​​that he bought and sold, or about the huge cultural damage that he inflicted all over the world.” Vance added that the deal with Steinhardt will help return the artifacts to the legal owners faster than if the collector went on trial.

Among the values ​​confiscated by Steinhardt is a drinking vessel in the shape of a deer head, which was dated about 400 BC and appeared on the market without a pro -provenance after robberies in the Turkish city of Milas. Steinhardt bought it for $ 2.6 million and leased a metro museum. Now the cup is estimated at $ 3.5 million.

Another artifact that the billionaire had to part with is a fresco with a baby Hercules, who strangles the snake sent to kill him. She adorned one of the buildings of the ancient Roman city of Herculanum, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. In 1995, it was stolen, and soon Steinhardt bought it for 650 thousand dollars. Now its estimated value is a million dollars.

In addition, the collector was seized from an ancient Greek funeral urn worth a million dollars, three Middle Eastern posthumous masks with a total cost of almost two million and a gold bowl from the Iraqi city of Nimrud, which was controlled by terrorists from the Islamic State . In 2020, Stainhardt bought a bowl for 150 thousand dollars from a person named Svyatoslav Konkin, the office of the district prosecutor Manhattan said.

After the conclusion of the transaction, Staynhardt’s lawyers said that their client was glad that the investigation against him ended without charges and that “the values ​​illegally received by others” will return to their owners. The lawyers added that the dealers from whom Stainhardt bought antiques presented him evidence of the legitimate origin of values ​​and their rights to them. But the office of the district prosecutor Manhattan insists: in fact, Steinhardt knew that the objects he bought was obtained illegally.

These are not the first complaints about Steinhardt related to his collection. Back in the 1990s, the financier was accused of illegal acquisition of a gold dish made on the territory of modern Italy more than two thousand years ago, for which he paid a million dollars. In addition, other charges were brought against Steinhardt: in 2019, seven women stated that he bowed them to sex, using his financial and official position.

Olga Korelina