US returns billionaire’s plundered artifacts to Jordan

By ILAN BEN ZION
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States has returned nine looted artifacts to Jordan seized from an American billionaire as part of a landmark deal announced in December. The Jordanian Antiquities Ministry and the U.S. Embassy in Jordan held a press conference in Jordan’s capital, Amman, on Tuesday showcasing the objects, which were “illegally smuggled from Jordan and obtained by an antiquities collector in the United States.” The artifacts were among 180 items seized by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in December as part of an agreement with collector Michael Steinhardt to surrender trafficked artifacts and avoid prosecution. It capped a four-year investigation into the American hedge fund founder’s possession of looted antiquities.