Matthew Bogdanos
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, author, boxer, and a retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bogdanos deployed to Afghanistan where he was awarded a Bronze Star for actions against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2003, while on active duty in the Marine Corps, he led an investigation into the looting of Iraq's National Museum, and was subsequently awarded the National Humanities Medal for his efforts. Returning to the District Attorney's Office in 2010, he created and still heads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, “the only one of its kind in the world.” The unit investigated looted art and helped repatriate them to their countries of origin. 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 New York to a Greek father, Konstantine, and a French mother, Claire. He is one of four children. Growing up he waited tables in his parents' Greek restaurant, Deno's Place, in lower Manhattan.Military Service
Bogdanos enlisted into the United States Marine Corps Reserve in January 1977, while still a freshman. During his military service, he served as a military lawyer at Camp Lejeune for three years before joining the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York in 1988 and becoming a homicide prosecutor. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bogdanos returned to full-time active duty.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. In 2001, he was part of a law enforcement, counter-terrorism team deployed to Afghanistan, where he was awarded a Bronze Star for actions against Al-Qaeda for, according to the bronze Star citation, "seizing unexpected opportunities and relying on his personal courage often at great personal risk.
In 2001 Matthew Bogdanos gained national attention for the prosecution of Sean Combs, who was acquitted of weapons and bribery charges in a trial stemming from a 1999 nightclub shootout.
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. For over five years Bogdanos led a team to recover the artifacts. Up to 2006, approximately 10000 artifacts were recovered through his efforts. Antiquities recovered include the Warka Vase and The Mask of Warka. Bogdanos wrote a memoir, Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures, which he co-wrote with William Patrick. The book chronicles his efforts to recover the missing Iraqi artifacts. In November 2005, he was awarded a National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush for his efforts to recover the artifacts. 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.Prosecutions and repatriations of smuggled antiquities
In 2006, he tried to form a New York task force to prosecute antiquities trafficking. He was initially rebuffed by his immediate bosses at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. When Cyrus Vance Jr. became District Attorney in 2010, he authorized Bogdanos to prosecute antiquities trafficking, but with no additional resources assigned. For the next six years, he and Special Agent Brenton Easter, a federal agent with Homeland Security investigations, worked dozens of cases, including one of the largest seizures of stolen antiquities in U.S. history, more than 2600 idols valued at more than $143 million and seized from New York dealer Subhash Kapoor who was convicted of trafficking in India. 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 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 convicted 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 convicted 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.
According to The New York Times, this case, along with others involving institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, could have significant implications for the authority of the Manhattan District Attorney's office in pursuing artifacts beyond New York, particularly concerning issues of evidence and jurisdiction.
The National Review cites this case in an article discussing allegations of overreach and abuse of power in Bogdanos’ efforts to seize and repatriate antiquities. Critics argue that this aggressive approach amounts to a “shakedown,” where collectors and institutions are coerced into giving up their art without a proper legal trial. Many fear the reputational damage and financial costs of lengthy legal battles, leading them to comply with the DA's demands. In addition, the article criticizes the DA's jurisdictional reach, arguing that the office is overstepping its bounds by targeting artifacts with only tenuous connections to New York.
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. 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 with the PRC, which has been extended despite opposition from advocates for Tibetan and Uyghur minorities.
The Dalai Lama has previously endorsed the preservation of Tibetan artifacts in U.S. museums, viewing them as safer than in Chinese custody. The return of these objects is seen by critics as a violation of U.S. cultural policy and human rights principles, particularly in light of China's ongoing repression of Tibetan culture, language, and religion.