Dallas Museum of Art Returns ‘Orpheus’ Mosaic to Turkey, Launches New International Exchange Program

FRONT ROW
By Peter Simek

TEXAS---The Dallas Museum of Art formally launched the new DMX international exchange program this morning by signing a “memorandum of understanding” with a cultural delegation from the Republic of Turkey and announcing the return of a mosaic in the museum’s collection that was looted from that country. The mosaic, Orpheus Taming Wild Animals (pictured above), dates to A.D. 194 and was acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art in 1999 at a public auction, but nine months ago Dallas Museum of Art Eugene McDermott Director Maxwell Anderson learned that the object may have been illegally removed from the floor of a Roman building near Edessa, an ancient city in south-eastern Turkey. [link]