Is the bronze head of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, which has been on display for more than 50 years at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, the missing part of a statue that has just been returned to Turkey? For Danish experts, there is nothing less certain, says the AFP agency, which is quoted by Agerpres.

After decades in the United States, a statue of the Roman emperor (145-211) in a private collection that was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has been returned to Turkey, but without the top.

“On the head that we have, we have to find fractures that exactly match the fractures on the torso” of the statue, Glyptotek collections director Rune Frederiksen told AFP.

In 1979, a former museum curator estimated that this bronze head, purchased in 1970 without information about its exact provenance, matched a decapitated statue from a private American collection. Both sides gathered for the exhibition.

Statue with question marks

“The head was attached to the torso in the sense that a rod was inserted into the neck (…) and attached to the torso in such a way that the two fragments came together,” Frederiksen said. For him, the meeting was not final.

“I’m not saying they don’t fit. I’m just saying that we are no longer as sure as we were 25 or 30 years ago, when we compiled catalogs,” the person in charge emphasized.

These catalogs further state that “nothing, in terms of composition or structure, prevents the head and body from belonging to the same statue.”

However, they are more emphatic about the provenance of the Danish bronzes, which they place at Bubon, a Roman site in Asia Minor, in the historical region of Lycia, on the modern Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

According to archaeologist Guillaume Biard of the University of Aix-Marseille, there is no definitive documentary evidence to officially identify the origin of the head.

Instead, “the torso recently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and returned to Turkey comes from the Sebasteion—the temple of the imperial cult—at Bubon,” he explains.

The Turks are sure that the head of the Roman emperor also belongs to them by right

However, for the Turkish authorities, the origin of the head is indisputable. They are based, in particular, on the work of the Turkish archaeologist Jale Inan, who carried out measurements from two sides.

“The bronze comes from Bubon in Turkey. And like all objects originating from Turkey, we demand that they be returned,” said Mehmet Bulut, charge d’affaires of Turkey in Denmark. Negotiations were held with the Glyptoteka.

“The procedure has been started. We submitted a request, but it will take some time,” said Bulut.

Although he is not opposed to restitution, Frederiksen believes that “a thorough investigation is necessary.”

“Obviously it’s important to be able to reassemble the ancient statues; most of those that have come down to us are heads without bodies or bodies without heads,” explains Emmanuel Rosseau, professor of art history and archeology at the University of Paris IV Sorbonne.

Some heads disappeared over time after some statues were decapitated, sometimes during riots or later by looters who wanted to sell two objects instead of one.

“Complete statues are very rare, and this is especially true of bronze statues,” Rosso noted. According to the expert, the compatibility of the Turkish statue with the bronze head located in Denmark can be checked without moving them.

“A 3D model made with the help of photogrammetry would be enough,” she believes.