This evidence, together with their stylistic similarity, presented a strong case that the foils were looted from the same site.

In 2010, SACH formally requested the repatriation of the ornaments, followed in 2014 by a formal notification that the objects may have been stolen. Chemical testing showed that the foils’ isotopic composition matched that of gold foils excavated from the Dapuzishan Mountain Range tomb site.

Deydier later sold four foils representing the bird of prey to the French billionaire and collector Francois Pinault, who in turn donated them to the Musée Guimet. Deydier then donated the remaining 28 foils to the same museum, reuniting his original collection.

The ornaments, most likely to have adorned the coffin of an elite individual, were from collector Christian Deydier, who had purchased them from a Hong Kong antiquities dealer in 1993.

In 2015, People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Culture and State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) launched an investigation into 32 gold foils held at the Musée Guimet in Paris.

New Case: Four Gold Foil Birds of Prey from the Chinese Eastern Zhou culture’s Spring and Autumn period, contributed by Allison Casaly.

All three idols first appeared on the art market in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s under New York-based gallery owner Edward Merrin, and then sold to Steinhardt. Merrin provided Steinhardt with a photograph of one of the idols broken and covered in dirt just after it had been looted.

NEWS: Among 180 objects valued at $70 million seized by the Manhattan DA, four antiquities were from Michael Steinhardt, one of the world’s largest ancient art collectors. Three of the objects are female Syro-Hittite Idols crafted in northwest Syria during the 2nd millennium B.C.E.

The Manhattan DA has seized and returned 36 antiquities, collectively valued over $5 million, to the people of Syria. Among the returned objects, including a Palmyrene sculpture and mosaics, are 31 Middle Eastern and North African antiquities allegedly trafficked into New York by Georges Lotfi.

"[...]while navigating an environment in which opinions on best practices have sometimes changed significantly within short periods.”

“Leaders at the Met, which has relinquished works in response to requests from overseas governments or actions by law enforcement agencies, see the arrangement with Ms. Pulitzer and the NCMM as providing a model they and administrators at other museums can use in the future[...]."

NYT: The Met worked with a collector, Ceil Pulitzer, and with officials of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) to return three African masterworks with insufficient provenance while ensuring that they will be accessible to audiences and scholars in New York.

The Archaic Cretan bronze armor is believed to have been deposited in an Archaic Greek sanctuary at the site of Afrati, where rescue excavations were undertaken by the Greek archaeological service in 1968-1969.

The returns include a Hellenistic gold and garnet amphora, a Middle Helladic beak-spouted jug, and a Roman marble head of a veiled man from the first half of the first century CE. The Met is also returning two helmets and three mitrai that come from the site of Afrati in north central Crete.

NEWS: The Met Museum has returned eight additional antiquities to Greece. Three of the objects were returned after new evidence emerged through the Manhattan DA’s ongoing investigations of antiquities dealers.