Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Grabs, Restitutions to Turkey: Shakedown

Bubon is in the news. No, Bubon isn’t another hot-to-trot, busty pornette. No, there’s not another sham trial about presidential “hush money,” even though Bubon and the Manhattan DA’s office are, these days, sharing headlines. Bubon and the DA’s office, that’s the turf of big Alvin Bragg, are perfect together, since the issue is a prosecutor’s abuse of power. Or is it the art of the shakedown?

I’ll spill the Turkish coffee beans. The DA’s got an art-trafficking division that has been chasing illegally exported antiquities and art swiped during the Holocaust. A good idea, generally. Bubon was, in ancient Roman times, a market town in southwestern Turkey, near the Mediterranean. By the second century a.d., it was also a pagan shrine to Rome’s emperors. It was packed with marble and bronze sculptures.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Bubon is in the news. No, Bubon isn’t another hot-to-trot, busty pornette. No, there’s not another sham trial about presidential “hush money,” even though Bubon and the Manhattan DA’s office are, these days, sharing headlines. Bubon and the DA’s office, that’s the turf of big Alvin Bragg, are perfect together, since the issue is a prosecutor’s abuse of power. Or is it the art of the shakedown?

I’ll spill the Turkish coffee beans. The DA’s got an art-trafficking division that has been chasing illegally exported antiquities and art swiped during the Holocaust. A good idea, generally. Bubon was, in ancient Roman times, a market town in southwestern Turkey, near the Mediterranean. By the second century a.d., it was also a pagan shrine to Rome’s emperors. It was packed with marble and bronze sculptures.