T\u00fcrkiye has recovered a long-missing panel from the famed Gypsy Girl Mosaic and returned it to the Zeugma Mosaic Museum<\/a> in Gaziantep, Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced on Tuesday.<\/h3>\nThe 13th panel, dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, was repatriated following joint efforts with US authorities after it surfaced at an international auction. The mosaic originates from the ancient city of Zeugma, a major Hellenistic Greek and later Greco-Roman settlement on the Euphrates River.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Ersoy recalled that the mosaic was broken apart during illegal excavations in the 1960s, with many of its panels smuggled abroad. Twelve pieces were repatriated and reunited with the artwork at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in 2018.<\/p>\n![\"Zeugma](\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1-52-1024x680.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nScientific research by Camila Felag of France\u2019s Grenoble Alpes University, together with assessments by Zeugma excavation director Kutalm\u0131\u015f G\u00f6rkay, confirmed that the newly recovered panel belongs to the same composition.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we are pleased to add the 13th panel to the museum\u2019s collection,\u201d Ersoy said, describing it as an important addition to one of the world\u2019s largest mosaic museums.<\/p>\n
He stressed that the recovery demonstrates how combating cultural property trafficking requires coordinated scientific research, legal mechanisms and international cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs missing pieces return, we are not only completing a mosaic but also restoring a damaged memory, filling gaps in history and reuniting a cultural asset with the heritage to which it belongs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye has recovered 13,454 cultural artifacts since 2002 under a memorandum of understanding with the United States that was signed in 2021 and recently extended for another five years.<\/p>\n
<\/figure>\nScientific research by Camila Felag of France\u2019s Grenoble Alpes University, together with assessments by Zeugma excavation director Kutalm\u0131\u015f G\u00f6rkay, confirmed that the newly recovered panel belongs to the same composition.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we are pleased to add the 13th panel to the museum\u2019s collection,\u201d Ersoy said, describing it as an important addition to one of the world\u2019s largest mosaic museums.<\/p>\n
He stressed that the recovery demonstrates how combating cultural property trafficking requires coordinated scientific research, legal mechanisms and international cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs missing pieces return, we are not only completing a mosaic but also restoring a damaged memory, filling gaps in history and reuniting a cultural asset with the heritage to which it belongs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye has recovered 13,454 cultural artifacts since 2002 under a memorandum of understanding with the United States that was signed in 2021 and recently extended for another five years.<\/p>\n