Collectors drop bid to prevent sculpture’s return to Lebanon

NEW YORK – A Colorado couple has dropped their bid to prevent a 2,300-year-old marble bull’s head from being returned to the Republic of Lebanon, where New York prosecutors say it was stolen during the country’s civil war in 1981.

The sculpture had been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art until July, when Lebanese officials requested the item’s return and the item was turned over to New York City authorities.

The New York Times reports collectors Lynda and William Beierwaltes sued the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the Lebanese government, arguing they had bought the artifact in good faith.

The Beierwaltes’s lawyer said Wednesday that they are withdrawing their claim to the sculpture after they were presented with “incontrovertible evidence” that it was stolen.

___

Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com