The sculpture was possibly produced between 4800 and 4100 BCE in what is today Manisa Province in Turkey,[6] although Christie's dated it about a thousand years later.
[8][10] The buyer then rescinded their offer, and Christie's placed the statue in storage in a vault operated by the auction house.
[5] In 2021, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan presided over a bench trial, Republic of Turkey v. Christie’s, Inc., concerning the dispute over the ownership of the Guennol Stargazer.
[6] Nathan found that Turkey had failed to show, by a preponderance of the evidence,[8] that the Guennol Stargazer, which had been exhibited in the United States for decades, had been excavated after 1906.
[6][11] This ruling was later upheld by Rosemary S. Pooler of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in March 2023.