Colonel Matthew Bogdanos to Address Forum on Thursday, February 20

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, Chief, Antiquities Trafficking Unit, New York District Attorney’s Office, has served as Assistant District Attorney since 1988. He is an 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.” He had previously gained national attention for the prosecution of Sean Combs, who was acquitted of weapons and bribery charges in a 2001 trial stemming from a 1999 nightclub shootout.

Bogdanos attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in New Jersey and later Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He holds a Bachelor's degree 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.

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.

Bogdanos enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in January 1977, while still a freshman. In 1988, he resigned from active duty to join the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. 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 March 2003, he was promoted to colonel and deployed to Iraq as head of his 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 10,000 artifacts were recovered through his efforts. Antiquities recovered include the Warka Vase and The Mask of Warka. Bogdanos co-wrote a memoir with William Patrick, Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures. 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.

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 2,600 idols valued at more than $143 million and seized from renowned New York dealer Subhash Kapoor who is on trial in India and awaiting extradition to New York.

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. Since then, the Unit has grown to 16 personnel. Since 2010, Bogdanos and his team have convicted a dozen traffickers, seized more than 4,000 antiquities valued at more than $200 million, and repatriated more than 2,000 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 it at the 2018 Met Gala.

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."

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.