[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/download_343637.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tTurkish authorities have seized a marble head depicting the ancient Greek god Zeus in Izmir\u2019s Konak district in western Turkey. The sculpture, which is believed to date to the Roman period around 2,000 years ago, was recovered during an operation conducted by the \u0130zmir Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office with officers from the Anti-Smuggling and Intelligence branches of the provincial police department.<\/p>\n
\n\tThree unnamed suspects were detained in the course of the operation and charged with violating Turkey\u2019s Law No. 2863 on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage. According to the Turkish news agency Demir\u00f6ren, the three were arrested after appearing in court.<\/p>\n
\n\tAuthorities have not revealed how the suspects acquired the sculpture, or whether it can be associated with a known archaeological site, illustrating the difficulties of establishing the age and historical significance of looted artifacts.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs ruler of the Olympian gods, Zeus occupied a central position in Greek mythology; following Rome\u2019s conquest of Greece, he became associated with the Roman god Jupiter while continuing to be depicted according to classical sculptural conventions. His cult was widespread in ancient Anatolia throughout the Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman periods.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor now, a more complete picture of the sculpture\u2019s age and origins is pending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/download_343637.jpg?w=1024″] Turkish authorities have seized a marble head depicting the ancient Greek god Zeus in Izmir\u2019s Konak district in western Turkey. The sculpture, which is believed to date to the Roman period around 2,000 years ago, was recovered during an operation conducted by the \u0130zmir Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office with officers from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2212964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2212964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2212964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2212964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2212964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}