Legal
Steinhardt’s Baby Hercules Fresco Returned to Italy by NY Prosecutors
- Antiquities, seized from money manager, finally sent back
- Steinhardt banned for life from antiquities market in 2021
New York prosecutors on Wednesday repatriated 142 antiquities valued at almost $14 million, 48 of which were seized as part of a criminal investigation of money manager and art collector Michael Steinhardt.
One of the masterpieces returned to Italian authorities was a fresco depicting Hercules as a baby, which was among 180 antiquities valued at $70 million that were forfeited by the fund manager to end an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that began in 2017. Steinhardt, who denied wrongdoing, wasn’t charged but received a first-of-its-kind lifetime ban against acquiring antiquities