Police astounded after finding £50m of looted art items in museum trustee’s home

Police have recovered tens of millions of pounds worth of looted artefacts from the home of a well-known trustee of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, it has emerged. Shelby White, 84, and her late investor husband Leon Levy, who died in 2003, used their wealth to put together a private collection of rare art objects. The couple purchased their items from various dealers, who were later accused of dealing in stolen goods. There is no suggestion that the philanthropic New Yorkers were aware that some of the items they purchased had been obtained illegally by their agents. An ancient bronze statue of Roman emperor Lucius Verus was found at Shelby White’s Manhattan flat (Image: Facebook/US Consulate General Istanbul) Police officers praised Ms White for helping them in their investigations and assisting in repatriating the art objects to their original countries, including Italy and Turkey. Investigators initially launched a dawn raid on Ms White’s Manhattan apartment in June 2021, where they found rooms full of valuable artefacts. Over the course of two years, they have retrieved 71 items from the flat, as well as another 17 from the Met itself, where they were on loan, according to the New York Times. Another art object was recovered from an undisclosed location, bringing the total value of the items retrieved to nearly $69million (£53million). The second of four sections of an Anatolian columned sarcophagus is valued at $1 million (Image: SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK) After the return of three of the antiquities, valued at $725,000, to Yemen, Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg said: “Our investigation into the collector Shelby White has allowed dozens of antiquities that were ripped from their countries of origin to finally return home.” Peter Chavkin, Ms White’s lawyer, revealed Ms White and her late husband had bought the artefacts in “good faith” at a public auction and from dealers they believed to be reputable. He said: “From the outset of their collecting, Shelby White and Leon Levy sought to share these treasures with the public, loaning objects to museums and publishing their collection extensively,” he said. “If an item in her collection was shown to have been wrongfully taken by others, Ms White has expeditiously and voluntarily returned it to its rightful place of origin.” Ms White is known for her philanthropic work and her expertise on ancients. She is by no means the only person to be caught up in the growing scandal. Professor David Gill, of the Centre for Heritage at Kent University, claimed that this was just the “tip of the iceberg”. He said that looting was carried out on an “industrial scale” in the 1970s and 1980s, with much of the loot then sold at public auction to unsuspecting collectors. Max Hollein, the Met’s director, said last month that Ms White was a “profoundly generous supporter” of the museum. “She has had an enormous impact at this Museum and many other institutions,” he said. “Shelby’s passion for art and philanthropy – and her commitment to the Met – have enabled significant advances in art history and the ongoing expansion of the stories we can tell in the galleries for the benefit of scholars and audiences worldwide.”