Statue of Cybele, brought to Turkey after 60 years to be exhibited in new museum

The ‘Kybele statue’, which was excavated in the Çavdarlı village of Afyonkarahisar in 1964 and smuggled abroad and brought to the country 60 years later with the involvement of the authorities from Turkey during an auction sale, will be exhibited in the new museum under construction in its homeland.

Cybelei, 1700 year-old statue of Anatolian mother goddess, smuggled from Turkey to Israel and taken to an auction sale in the United States was found thanks to efforts of the Ministry of culture and tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate General of Turkey in New York and brought to Turkey.

Director of Afyonkarahisar Culture and Tourism department said that the Kybele statue would be exhibited in the new museum. Stating that the statue taken over by the director of the Afyonkarahisar Archaeological Museum and the experts would be preserved in the old museum for some time, the director noted that they aimed to finish the new museum by June 2022.