Matthew Bogdanos

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is an American lawyer, author, boxer, and retired U.S. Marine colonel, who has served as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan since 1988. Matthew Bogdanos has faced opposition during his tenure at the Antiquities Trafficking Unit from museums impacted by his investigations.

Education Bogdanos attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in New Jersey and later Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor's in classical studies from Bucknell and a degree in law from Columbia University Law School. He also has a master's degree in Classical Studies from Columbia University and another Master's in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.

Biography

Bogdanos is one of a set of twins born and raised in Kips Bay, Manhattan, New York to a Greek father, Konstantine, and a French mother, Claire. Growing up he waited tables in his parents' Greek restaurant, Deno's Place, in lower Manhattan.

In 1996, Bogdanos led a counter-narcotics action on the Mexico–United States border, he was active during Operation Desert Storm and served in South Korea, Lithuania, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kosovo.

Combatting Looting In March 2003, he was promoted to colonel and deployed to Iraq as head of the team. During his stint in Iraq, the Iraq Museum in Baghdad was sacked and thousands of valuable antiquities were stolen. Antiquities recovered include the Warka Vase and The Mask of Warka. He has also received the 2004 Public Service Award from the Hellenic Lawyers of America, the 2006 Distinguished Leadership Award from the Washington DC Historical Society, and a 2007 Proclamation from the City of New York, among other awards. Deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 with NATO counter-insurgency forces, he was released back into the Marine Reserves in September 2010, and returned to the District Attorney's Office. By 2017, Bogdanos and Easter were making so many antiquities trafficking cases, that Bogdanos was sleeping in his office. When supervisors alerted District Attorney Vance, he approved the creation of the first-of-its-kind Antiquities Trafficking Unit consisting of prosecutors, federal agents, New York City detectives, and specialized analysts. By 2023, the Unit had grown to 17 personnel. Since 2010, Bogdanos and his team have convicted a dozen traffickers, seized more than 4000 antiquities valued at more than $200 million, and repatriated more than 2000 antiquities to almost two dozen countries. Among the seizures was a golden first-century-B.C. Egyptian coffin that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had acquired for $4 million and was made famous in the United States when Kim Kardashian posed for a photo next to the coffin at the 2018 Met Gala. Stolen from Egypt in 2011 and smuggled to the United States with a false provenance, the Nedjemankh coffin was repatriated to Egypt in 2019.

Other prosecutions As a Senior Trial Counsel in the District Attorney's Office, Bogdanos still prosecutes homicides, what he describes as being "connected to the worst moment in people's lives." In 2015, Bogdanos successfully prosecuted pharmaceuticals executive Gigi Jordan for poisoning her 8-year-old autistic son, Jude, by forcing him to ingest hydrocodone, ambien, and Xanax, washing them down his throat with orange juice and vodka. Jordan was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years in prison. In 2019, Bogdanos prosecuted Roderick Covlin of murdering his wealthy wife, Shele Covlin, for her money. Covlin tried to frame his 9-year-old daughter for the murder, but Bogdanos successfully disproved that defense. Covlin was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Criticism

Prosecutorial overreach In September 2024, a legal dispute emerged between the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Aaron Mendelsohn, a California-based collector, over the ownership of an ancient Roman bronze statue. Matthew Bogdanos sought to seize the headless statue, alleging that it had been looted from an archaeological site in Turkey during the 1960s.

Mendelsohn's lawyers contested the seizure in court, arguing that the New York investigators lacked both jurisdiction and sufficient evidence to justify their actions. They accused the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of employing intimidation tactics to compel Mendelsohn to surrender the statue without due legal process. The defense maintained that the burden of proof rested with the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, asserting that the New York investigators were attempting to circumvent a transparent legal procedure that would require them to substantiate their claims with concrete evidence. Mendelsohn's legal team stated that should the statue be definitively proven to have been looted, Mendelsohn would willingly return it to Turkey.

Controversial return of Tibetan cultural relics In May 2024 the New York District Attorney's Office Anti-Trafficking Unit returned 38 Tibetan Buddhist artifacts to the People's Republic of China (PRC). The artifacts, said to originate from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, included bronzes, ivory carvings, and mural fragments. The authenticity and historical attribution of these objects were questioned by art experts. The repatriation, conducted by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, was seen by some as an attempt to bolster U.S.-China relations. The PRC media celebrated the return as a positive step for cultural relations.

However, the move has sparked controversy, particularly within the Tibetan community. Lama Wangchuk Gyaltsen, a Tibetan elder, criticized the return, accusing China of continuing to oppress Tibetan culture and questioning the legality and ethics of returning artifacts to a government that has historically suppressed Tibetan heritage. U.S. policy, historically sympathetic to Tibetan cultural preservation, stands in contrast to the State Department's Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) with the PRC, which has been extended despite opposition from advocates for Tibetan and Uyghur minorities.

Djamila Fellague, an expert in Roman art and archaeology, has provided detailed evidence that suggests the mosaics are not authentic. According to her research, the designs of the alleged fakes were copied from well-known Roman mosaics housed in museums and archaeological sites in Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, and Turkey. For example, Fellague identified one mosaic panel, depicting an Anguiped Giant, as a clear imitation of a section from the famous mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Another mosaic, featuring Neptune and his wife Amphitrite, appears to be based on a Roman mosaic found in Constantine, Algeria, that has been displayed in the Louvre in Paris since the mid-19th century. Out of the nine mosaics returned to Lebanon, Fellague claims only one appears to have been inspired by an actual Lebanese artefact — a depiction of Bacchus from the National Museum of Beirut.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office had announced the return of the mosaics in September 2023, as part of a broader effort to repatriate Middle Eastern and North African antiquities that had been allegedly trafficked into New York. The office's Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) obtained a warrant for the arrest of a Lebanese antiquities trafficker and issued an Interpol red notice in 2022. The nine mosaics were part of a collection of looted artefacts believed to have been brought into New York illegally. However, as soon as Fellague saw photographs of the mosaics in the press, she immediately sensed that most were "obvious fakes" and began her investigation.

Fellague's research led her to believe that the forgeries may have been created in a workshop located in the Middle East, likely during the 1970s or 1980s, based on the style and techniques used. Despite these accusations, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office denied the claims. They argued that the mosaics had been authenticated by experts during the legal proceedings and that a court had evaluated the evidence before authorising their return to Lebanon. “The court found, based on the evidence — which these individuals do not have — that the pieces are authentic,” the spokesperson stated.

Cultural Property News referenced reports from the World Customs Organization (WCO) since 2015, which indicate that cultural heritage trafficking, including antiquities, represents a small portion of global illicit trade. Additionally, a 2020 report by the RAND Corporation found no evidence to support the claim of a multi-billion-dollar antiquities market.

The controversy arose after the unit announced the recovery of two 4th-century marble statuettes, claiming credit for their identification without acknowledging Tsirogiannis’ role. The statuettes, depicting the mythological figures Castor and Pollux, had been looted from Lebanon and were later seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tsirogiannis asserts that his 2012 doctoral research, which remains under restricted access at the University of Cambridge, was crucial in proving the objects' illicit origins.

His favourite books are Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote and Homer's Iliad.

Bogdanos is also a former middleweight boxer with almost 30 amateur fights and is still boxing, with a record of 10-2 since his 40th birthday. Along with another Assistant District Attorney, fellow U.S. Marine officer Al Peterson, he co-founded a Charity Boxing Foundation called Battle of the Barristers that has raised more than $1 million for wounded veterans and children at risk.

Awards and recognition Military awards

Other awards Ellis Island Medal of Honor – May 2011 City of Philadelphia Proclamation – February 2009 New York City Proclamation – April 2007 Distinguished Leadership Award, Washington DC Historical Society – June 2006 National Humanities Medal, from President George W. Bush, White House – November 2005 Hellenic Lawyers Association Public Service Award – November 2004

Publications

Thieves of Baghdad is his first-hand account of his journey to recover Iraq's lost treasures. His royalties from the sale of the book go to the Iraq Museum.