The Bubon Statue Departs

Through July 8, 2025, a monumental ancient bronze statue of a draped male figure stands at the center of the Monte and Usha Ahuja Founders Rotunda. Acquired by the CMA in good faith in 1986, the statue was recently deaccessioned for return to Türkiye after scientific tests showed that it likely once stood atop a stone pedestal at Bubon, an archaeological site in Lycia (now southwestern Türkiye). Its temporary new display, made possible through the generosity of the Republic of Türkiye and the District Attorney of New York County, celebrates the mutual goodwill and recent cooperative research efforts undertaken on the statue and at Bubon. This represents a positive outcome to a lengthy process and an opportunity to share new knowledge and bid this longtime visitors’ favorite farewell.

The statue depicts a man in elaborate Greek dress and sandals, standing in a contrapposto pose with weight on the right leg and the left foot advanced. Now headless, the figure wears a himation, a rectangular cloth traditionally draped over the left shoulder, with a lighter undergarment, known as a chiton, visible at the chest. The statue gives the appearance of solidity but is hollow, constructed from many separately cast pieces carefully joined together to appear almost seamless, using techniques established across wide areas of the Greek and Roman world. Without a documented findspot, the statue had long been grouped with other large-scale bronzes that entered the art market in the 1960s. 

Many of these bronzes were rumored to have come from illicit digging at Bubon, where Turkish archaeologist Dr. Jale İnan later excavated the small Sebasteion. This imperial-cult shrine was lined on three sides with stone-statue bases, some inscribed with names matching the identities of portraits thought to have been found there. Unlike other male statues from Bubon, which show divinized Roman emperors as heroic nudes, this statue more closely resembles a Greek philosopher or orator, prompting scholars to label it Marcus Aurelius, the emperor now also known as a philosopher. But his philosophical Meditations were private, unpublished writings, and most representations of Aurelius portray him like other Roman emperors—either nude, in military garb, or draped in a toga, not a Greek himation. Additionally, the aforementioned scientific tests suggest that this statue stood on an uninscribed base at Bubon, not the one naming Aurelius. Thus, while some continue to see the statue as Aurelius, uniquely depicted as a philosopher, others see its identity as uncertain. 

Let us hope that its return to Türkiye leads to a fuller understanding of the statue, the site, and the other objects found there. To learn more, visit the installation in the rotunda, which presents more fulsome didactic materials.