Erdogan to be kept far from Fortuna, says museum

A Nato state dinner taking place at the Art & History Museum in Cinquantenaire Park on Wednesday will not be held in the hall that the venue normally uses for banquets. The dinner will be held in another hall in the building to prevent Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan from casting his eyes on a certain sculpture.

‘Tyche’ is a marble sculpture by an unknown artist depicting Fortuna, the Greek goddess of Fortune. According to Erdogan, the sculpture was stolen from the ancient city of Perga in southwest Turkey. Today it is a well-known site of ancient ruins.

The Turkish ambassador has assured Belgian authorities that the subject of the statue will not come up during this week’s summit. But the museum is taking no chances to add fuel to the fire. “We simply won’t be using that room during the summit,” a museum spokesperson said.

Turkey has long said that the sculpture should be returned to the ancient site, but the museum says they purchased it through entirely legal means in 1958. State secretary for public institutions, Zuhal Demir, says that “there is no evidence” to suggest that the sculpture was stolen.

Photo: The lady in question, who dates from the second century
©Daderot/Wikipedia