Turkey Bans Artifact Loans to NY Metropolitan Museum

A new Turkish campaign has barred the loan of artifacts to American and British museums, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), until most of the country's treasured artifacts are returned.

This primarily involves antiquities that were taken from Turkey under disputed circumstances.

The Met has confirmed that many Turkish antiquities that have been housed in its corridors are now being claimed by Turkey though the museum did not provide the identity of the individual items.

You have artifacts that were stolen from Turkey. We'll cooperate once you've returned them to us, the Cihan news agency quoted Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertu?rul Günay as saying.

A Met spokesperson has mentioned that the matter is still under discussion with the Turkish authorities.

For the upcoming Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition exhibition at the Met, authorities from the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry last week refused to loan any artifacts.

The exhibition, to be held between March 14 and July 8, will focus on the multiethnic Byzantine state's southern provinces during the meteoritic rise of Islam in the seventh century. It will now only include loans from the Benaki Museum in Athens, with none requested of Turkish museums.

The British Museum, on the other hand, was also refused a loan of 35 items for the exhibition Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam to be held on April15.

According to reports by the Art Newspaper, Tolga Tüylüo?lu, the head of the Turkish government's culture and tourism office in London, has confirmed that claims for the return of two artifacts in the British Museum and V&A are being pursued.