# The Lydian Hoard (Karun Treasure)
> Unrecorded Lydian goldsmiths, Sardis region - c. 550-450 BCE, Achaemenid-period Lydia (after the Persian conquest of Sardis in 547/6 BCE)
> Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/lydian-goldsmiths-sardis/lydian-hoard-usak-museum/
> Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-17
## Tombstone
- **Artist:** Unrecorded Lydian goldsmiths, Sardis region
- **Date:** c. 550-450 BCE, Achaemenid-period Lydia (after the Persian conquest of Sardis in 547/6 BCE)
- **Medium:** Gold, worked in sheet, repousse, filigree and applied wire; the wider hoard also includes silver vessels, gilt silver, bronze, glass, jasper and wall-painting fragments
- **Dimensions:** Group of 363 accessioned gold and silver objects as repatriated in 1993, of varying sizes; the gold hippocamp brooch at the center of this record is approximately 3.8 cm (1.5 in) high and weighs 14.3 g
- **Object type:** Goldsmith's work
- **Period:** Achaemenid Anatolia, Lydian satrapy
- **Current location:** Usak Museum of Archaeology, Usak, Turkey
- **Attribution:** unknown
## Summary
The Lydian Hoard, also called the Karun Treasure, is a group of 363 gold and silver objects looted from Lydian burial tumuli near Usak, Turkey, in the mid-1960s, sold piecemeal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art between 1966 and 1970, and returned to Turkey in 1993 after a six-year lawsuit that ended when the museum's own internal correspondence, surfaced in discovery, showed its staff had believed from the start that the material was illegally excavated.This record anchors on the hoard's smallest and most notorious single piece: a gold brooch in the shape of a winged sea-horse, a hippocamp, barely an inch and a half high. In 2005 the director of the Turkish museum charged with the collection's safekeeping, the same man whose fieldwork had helped win the treasure back from New York, stole the genuine brooch to cover gambling debts and replaced it with a heavier fake. The substitution was exposed in 2006 by a simple weight discrepancy, he was convicted in 2009, and the genuine brooch resurfaced intact in Germany in 2012, its intervening seven years unaccounted for in any source located for this record.No free-licensed photograph of the genuine, recovered hippocamp brooch could be located. The only Commons image of the piece is explicitly documented, by the photographer's own file notes, as the confiscated fake photographed in 2012 while it was still on display; this record uses it only to illustrate the substitution itself, clearly labeled as such.
## Provenance
Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it.
- **c. 550-450 BCE** Lydian noble burial, Gure region, Usak province (and one mound near Harta, Manisa province) `[documented]` (origin)
Deposited as grave goods in tumulus burials of the Lydian elite in the century or so following the Persian conquest of Sardis. The findspot is documented through the tombs themselves and comparison with controlled excavation at Sardis; the hippocamp brooch's specific tomb of origin is not identified in sources consulted.
- **c. 1965-1967** Illegal excavation by local farmers/treasure hunters `[documented]` (looting)
Tumuli at Ikiztepe, Toptepe, Aktepe and Basmaci, all near Gure in Usak province, plus a further mound near Harta in Manisa province, were dynamited or otherwise breached and looted. Press accounts differ on the exact year each mound was first opened (1965 versus 1966 for the earliest digs); this record states the range rather than resolving the discrepancy.
- **1965-1966** Ali Bayirlar, antiquities dealer, Izmir `[documented]` (smuggling)
Looters sold the material to Bayirlar, who arranged its export from Turkey.
- **1966** J. J. Klejman (New York) and George Zacos (Switzerland), dealers `[documented]` (sale)
Bayirlar sold the material on to these two dealers, who supplied it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- **1966-1970** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York `[documented]` (acquisition)
Purchased in three successive batches presented to the acquisitions committee by curator Dietrich von Bothmer. Total price reported variously as approximately 1.5 million dollars overall or 1.2 million dollars for 200 pieces bought in 1967-1968; not reconciled in sources consulted. Exhibited from 1984 as an undifferentiated group labeled East Greek, without acquisition history that would have identified it as the material Turkey had inquired about in 1970.
- **1987-1993** Subject of litigation, Republic of Turkey v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, S.D.N.Y. `[documented]` (litigation)
Turkey sued 29 May 1987. The museum's statute-of-limitations defense failed at summary judgment on 16 July 1990 (762 F. Supp. 44), sending the case to discovery, which produced internal Met correspondence and the director's own later published account acknowledging the museum believed the material was illegally excavated at the time of purchase.
- **1993** Republic of Turkey `[documented]` (restitution)
Settled in September 1993; the Metropolitan Museum publicly stated that Turkish authorities had provided evidence that most of the material had been clandestinely removed from the tombs. The 363-piece group arrived in Turkey in October 1993 and was initially displayed in Ankara.
- **1995-2005** Usak Museum of Archaeology, Usak, Turkey `[documented]` (transfer and display)
Transferred from Ankara to permanent display at the Usak Museum in 1995. Kazim Akbiyikoglu, who had provided the affidavit central to Turkey's case, served as the museum's curator and later director during this period.
- **2005** Sold by Kazim Akbiyikoglu, museum director, to an unidentified buyer `[documented]` (theft)
The genuine hippocamp brooch was removed and sold, and a replica weighing 23.5 g against the original's 14.3 g was substituted, probably between March and August 2005. Akbiyikoglu later admitted the sale and was convicted in 2009.
- **2005-2012** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap)
The genuine brooch's whereabouts between the 2005 theft and its November 2012 recovery in Germany are not documented in the sources consulted. Speculation that it had been melted down to destroy evidence, reported by the journalist Ozgen Acar, was not borne out by its later intact recovery, but the intervening custody chain remains unstated in the sources reviewed.
- **2012-2013** Recovered by German authorities; temporarily displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara `[documented]` (recovery)
Recovered intact in Germany, reported publicly in late November 2012. How it reached Germany or was located there is not disclosed in the sources consulted. Turkey's Culture Minister stated it would return to Usak by early 2013; a researcher visiting Usak in December 2013 still found only the confiscated fake on public display there, with the genuine piece still in Ankara pending transfer.
- **2013-present** Usak Museum of Archaeology, Usak, Turkey `[documented]` (current display)
The genuine hippocamp brooch is confirmed on permanent display in the Usak Museum's current, larger building by a September 2018 report describing 432 pieces on view. The exact date the museum relocated to this building is not reconciled between a 2013 announcement and a 2018 relocation date given elsewhere; this record states both without resolving them.
## Exhibitions
- Initial display following restitution, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, 1993-1995
- Permanent Karun Treasure gallery, Usak Museum of Archaeology, original building, 1995-2013
- Temporary display of the recovered hippocamp brooch pending transfer, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, 2012-2013
- Permanent Karun Treasure gallery, current building, Usak Museum of Archaeology, current building, 2013 or 2018 (unreconciled)
## Literature
- Ilknur Ozgen and Jean Ozturk, 'Heritage Recovered: The Lydian Treasure', Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture, Istanbul, 1996. Catalogue of the returned material with contributions from Machteld J. Mellink, Crawford H. Greenewalt Jr., Kazim Akbiyikoglu, and Turkey's lawyer Lawrence M. Kaye.
- Dietrich von Bothmer, 'A Greek and Roman Treasury', Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 42, no. 1 (Summer 1984). The 1984 publication under the misleading label East Greek that led to the material's identification by Ozgen Acar.
## Open questions
- From which specific tomb or tumulus did the hippocamp brooch itself come? Sources describe the group of looted mounds but do not tie this individual piece to one excavated context.
- How did the genuine hippocamp brooch reach Germany, and through whose hands, between its 2005 theft and its recovery there in November 2012? No source consulted for this record discloses the German-side investigation or chain of custody.
- What exact sentences did the nine co-defendants arrested alongside Kazim Akbiyikoglu receive? Sources describe them only as lesser than his own, which Hurriyet gives as twelve years and eleven months at first instance.
- What is the correct total price the Metropolitan Museum paid across its three purchases, 1966-1970? Sources give both approximately 1.5 million dollars overall and 1.2 million dollars for 200 pieces bought in 1967-1968 specifically, without a reconciling itemized account.
- When precisely did the Usak Museum move into its current larger building? One 2013 report describes a new building as imminent; Wikipedia and a 2018 Anadolu Agency report place the relocation and the return of 432 displayed pieces in 2018. This record could not reconcile the two dates.
- Has any gold-purity or XRF analysis of the genuine hippocamp brooch, as opposed to the confiscated 23.5 g replica, been published? None was located for this record.
- How many of the pieces now displayed at Usak, reported at 432 to 450, belong to the original 363-object hoard subject to the 1993 restitution, as opposed to separately excavated Lydian material shown alongside it?
## Sources
- [1] Sharon Waxman, 'Chasing the Lydian Hoard', Smithsonian Magazine.
- [2] Wikipedia, 'Karun Treasure'. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with the underlying press reporting and court record it summarizes.
- [3] Wikipedia, 'Usak Museum of Archaeology'. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with primary museum and press sources.
- [4] Centre du droit de l'art, Universite de Geneve, case note, 'Lydian Hoard - Turkey and Metropolitan Museum of Art'.
- [5] Republic of Turkey v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 762 F. Supp. 44 (S.D.N.Y. 1990).
- [6] Ilknur Ozgen, 'The Lydian Treasure', Sardis Expedition (Harvard-Cornell).
- [7] Constanze Letsch, 'King Croesus's golden brooch to be returned to Turkey', The Guardian, 25 November 2012.
- [8] David Gill, 'Lydian Hoard brooch recovered in Germany', Looting Matters, November 2012.
- [9] David Gill, 'Lydian Hoard Conviction', Looting Matters, February 2009.
- [10] ARCAblog, 'Postcard from Turkey: The Archaeological Museum at Usak, The Lydian Hoard and Two Hippocampuses', December 2013.
- [11] The Nation, 'Tales from the Vitrine: Battles Over Stolen Antiquities'.
- [12] The History Blog, 'Gold hippocampus from Lydian Hoard found'.
- [13] Hurriyet Daily News, 'New Usak museum to house renowned Karun treasures'.
- [14] Anadolu Agency, 'Priceless Karun Treasures exhibited in Turkey's Usak', 14 September 2018.
- [15] Crawford H. Greenewalt Jr., 'Gold and Silver Refining at Sardis', Sardis Expedition (Harvard-Cornell).
- [16] Bryn Mawr Classical Review, review of Andrew Ramage and Paul T. Craddock, 'King Croesus' Gold: Excavations at Sardis and the History of Gold Refining' (Archaeological Exploration of Sardis 11).
- [17] Herodotus, Histories, Book 1, section 94, G. C. Macaulay translation (public domain).
- [18] PRI / The World, 'One of King Croesus's lost treasures found in Germany', 25 November 2012.
- [19] Ilknur Ozgen and Jean Ozturk, with contributions by Machteld J. Mellink, Crawford H. Greenewalt Jr., Kazim Akbiyikoglu and Lawrence M. Kaye, 'Heritage Recovered: The Lydian Treasure', Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture, Istanbul, 1996.
- [20] Wikimedia Commons, Category: Karun Treasure in the Usak archaeological museum, and individual file metadata (photographers Dosseman and Satirdan kahraman).
- [21] Republic of Turkey v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 762 F. Supp. 44 (S.D.N.Y. 1990), No. 87 Civ. 3750 (VLB), order of Vincent L. Broderick, District Judge, 16 July 1990. Full opinion text read on CourtListener. Used for what the court actually decided: the docket number, counsel on both sides, the demand and refusal rule for a good faith purchaser under CPLR 214(3), the holding that the museum's delay arguments went to laches and not to the statute of limitations following Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation v. Lubell, and the denial of summary judgment without prejudice on both the conversion claim and the bad faith claim.
- [22] T.C. Usak Valiligi (Governorship of Usak), 'Karun Hazineleri', official provincial government page, read in Turkish. Used to replace the tertiary source for the excavation sequence and the return: Toptepe from 1965 and Ikiztepe in 1966 with Aktepe among the mounds, the suit filed in New York in May 1987, the favourable ruling of July 1990, and the figure of 363 objects returned to Turkey in October 1993.
- [23] Hurriyet, 'Usak Muze Muduru'ne 12 yil hapis', 14 February 2009, read in Turkish. Used to replace the tertiary source for the first-instance sentence: the Usak Heavy Penal Court sentencing the former museum director Kazim Akbiyikoglu to twelve years and eleven months and the co-defendant Uguz Saglan to twelve years and six months over the substitution of the Winged Sea Horse brooch.
- [24] Anadolu Agency, 'Muze mudurunun cezasi onandi', 14 September 2012, read in Turkish. The Turkish state news agency. Used for the appeal: the Fifth Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation upholding a total sentence of seventeen years and six months, the imprisonment that followed, and the agency's dating of the substitution to June 2006, which is the date this account records as conflicting with the 2005 window given elsewhere.
- [25] Arkeolojik Haber, '2500 yillik Kanatli Denizati brosunun siradisi seruveni', read in Turkish. A Turkish archaeology news report, secondary and uncredited, flagged for replacement with the Essen prosecutor's file or a Turkish ministry statement. Used for the detail no other consulted source carries and that the record previously recorded as missing: the location of the brooch in Hagen, the notification to Turkish Interpol in November 2012, the named experts Ertekin Doksanalti and Mahmut Aydin, the three and a half hour examination at the Essen prosecutor's office on 13 November, and the test that settled it, the original being forged where the copy was cast. CAUTION: this is the only source consulted for the Hagen recovery, it is an uncredited reprint of a Sabah feature of 23 September 2018 by Hakan Turpcu, and it dates the original dig to June 1968 against 1965 and 1966 in the Usak governorship and the Art-Law Centre. Replace it with the Essen prosecutor's file or a ministry statement when one can be read.
- [26] Anadolu Agency, 'Kanatli Denizati Brosu Ankara'da', 11 March 2013, read in Turkish. Used to replace the tertiary source for the recovery: the handover by the German authorities to Osman Murat Suslu, director general of cultural heritage and museums, the carriage to Turkey by the culture and tourism minister Omer Celik in March 2013 rather than in 2012 when the return was announced, the display at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, and the agency's dating of the theft to 2005.
- [27] Anadolu Agency, 'Karun Hazineleri yeni muzesinde', 6 May 2018, read in Turkish. Used for where the brooch and the hoard went after Ankara: the brooch returning to Usak two months before publication, the installation of the treasure in the new Usak Archaeology Museum by the railway station, the count of 432 pieces given there against the 363 in the 1993 return, and the quoted remarks of the governor Salim Demir and the museum director Serif Soyler.
- [28] Ege'de Yeni Gun, '2 aydir kapali olan Usak Arkeoloji Muzesi yeniden ziyarete acildi', 10 March 2025, read in Turkish. A regional newspaper, used for the current state of the holding as checked on 26 September 2026: the museum closed to visitors on 31 December 2024 for repairs to water coming through the building and reopened on 1 March 2025 with the Karun Treasure on show. The museum closed again on 11 November 2025 for climate-control work, which is carried at sources 15 and 16.
- [29] Usak Olay, 'Usak Muzesi eski muduru Akbiyikoglu vefat etti', 19 October 2017, read in Turkish. A local news report, flagged for replacement with a civil register entry or a national obituary. Used for one fact only, that Kazim Akbiyikoglu died of a heart attack at his daughter's home in Izmir in October 2017 aged 64, after conditional release.
- [30] Ege'de Yeni Gun, '2 aydir kapali olan Usak Arkeoloji Muzesi yeniden ziyarete acildi', Berkay Ozyayla. Cited for the reopening of 1 March 2025 after a closure the paper gives as two months. The 31 December 2024 closure date itself is carried by the same paper's report of 17 February 2025 and by Usak Port of 11 March 2025, not by this article.
- [31] Ege'de Yeni Gun, 'Karun Hazinelerinin sergilendigi Usak Arkeoloji Muzesi, iklimlendirme calismasi icin bir sureligine ziyarete kapandi', 11 November 2025. Cited for the second closure, its stated purpose and its expected length.
- [32] Usak Port, 'Usak Arkeoloji Muzesi bir sureligine kapali!', 11 November 2025. Cited alongside source 15 as the second local report of the same closure.
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