Matthew Bogdanos

[upbeat music] This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything, with your host, Stephen Dubner.

[upbeat music] Matthew Bogdanos is a former Marine colonel who now runs the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

We met him in our previous episode.

We do not, under any circumstances, want to denude New York of its cultural treasures.

That world is gone, so there is no one to give it back to.

It's just an illusion.

[upbeat music] I went back to Matthew Bogdanos, the prosecutor, with David Frum's argument.

Now, there are those who would say that your position is noble but naive in that you are putting a physical piece of property into the hands of someone who may be a generation or 10 generations removed from the origin, from either the creator or the owner, and there are a number of ways that could be problematic.

Now local law authorities knew about the book too.

too.The district attorney, uh, Matthew Bogdanos, who's the person who runs the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, which we had not previously known existed, they called us and they said, "Keep the book.

Don't give it back to this person because now this is so much further beyond him and you.

This is involving an entirely other family the books were stolen from.

Good morning, everybody.

It is my privilege to lead a unit whose function is to return to the rightful owners their priceless cultural heritage, whether it be antiquities, works of art, or rare books.

At a press conference where Matthew Bogdanos of the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit returned the books to a member of the Whitney family.

Our mission is, without fear or favor, to correct history's wrongs whenever those wrongs violate New York's criminal law.