Object Description

Bronze Statuette of a Togatus (2)

Bronze statuette of a togatus, product of an Etruscan workshop, ca. 2nd Century BC. The second of a pair. 

Identification Date

Between 2018 and 2021

Identification Location

Michael Steinhardt Private Collection 

Artefact History

Before 1993

In the Medici archive, the two bronze togati are depicted in twenty-seven (27) regular-print images, unclean, fragmented, lying on a white sheet and with a yellow tape-measure between them.

16 Jun 1993

The second togatus was sold by the Manhattan antiquities gallery ‘Phoenix Ancient Art’ (belonging to the Aboutaam brothers), to the American private collector Michael Steinhardt for $800,000.

Between 2018 and 2021

Using the Medici images, the second bronze togatus was identified by the Italian archaeologists Dr. Daniela Rizzo and Mr. Maurizio Pellegrini, in the private collection of Michael Steinhardt in Manhattan, New York, following a raid of the Manhattan DA’s office in the Steinhardt premises on January 2018.

Artefact Status

February 2022

The second bronze togatus was repatriated to Italy in February 2022. 

Read more:
Manhattan DA’s Office. 2021. Statement of facts (on the Steinhardt case), pp. 16-17.