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Recently
- UPDATED > USA vs One Ancient Mosaic: A Looted Syrian Masterpiece in Los Angeles May 26, 2018
- The Sidon Bull’s Head: Court Record Documents a Journey Through the Illicit Antiquities Trade September 24, 2017
- Hobby Lobby’s Legal Expert Speaks: “I can’t rule out…they used my advice to evade the law.” July 10, 2017
- UPDATED > Help Wanted: We’re Tracking Down Objects Sold By Nancy and Doris Wiener January 5, 2017
- UPDATED > Manhattan Dealer Nancy Wiener Arrested: Criminal Complaint Alleges Sweeping Conspiracy to Sell Stolen Asian Art Through Major Auction Houses December 21, 2016
- UPDATED > Inside the ISIS Looting Operation: U.S. Lawsuit Reveals Terror Group’s Brutal Bureaucracy of Plunder December 15, 2016
- The End of the Beginning: NGA Returns Kushan Buddha and Two Kapoor Objects September 18, 2016
- The Missing Link: Subhash Kapoor’s Suppliers in India Are (Finally) Getting Rolled Up July 3, 2016
- The Lessons of Palmyra: Iconoclasm in the era of Clickbait April 7, 2016
- UPDATED > Asia Week Arrest: Japanese Dealer Convicted Of Selling Stolen Art March 19, 2016
- Asia Week Raids: New Details on the Christie’s Seizures March 18, 2016
- Busted: Asia Week Raids Reveal Scope of Illicit Trade in Asian Art March 17, 2016
- The Crennan Report: The NGA’s Ex Post Facto Due Diligence Finds 22 “Questionable” Asian Antiquities February 17, 2016
- Operation Antiquity: Prison for Antiquities Dealer Behind Looting and Tax Fraud Scheme December 15, 2015
- Ball State’s Kapoor Return Reveals New False Provenance November 17, 2015
- The Seated Buddha Goes Home: Nancy Wiener and National Gallery of Australia Will Return Sculpture to India March 5, 2015
- The Kushan Buddhas: Nancy Wiener, Douglas Latchford and New Questions about Ancient Buddhas February 1, 2015
- Danti’s Inference: The Known Unknowns Of ISIS and Antiquities Looting November 18, 2014
- Hecht’s Footprints: Haverford College Opens Up About Source of Their Greek Vases November 4, 2014
- Shiva Goes Home: Australia’s Prime Minister Returns Looted Kapoor Idols to India September 4, 2014
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Tweeting Aphrodite
- RT @Plauditeciues: The Times, December 10 2019 Collector returns stolen Celtic helmets to Spain A british collector has returned seven an… 3 days ago
- Congratulations to Rick on his appointment to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee twitter.com/RickStHilaire/… 3 days ago
- RT @Artnose: There is nothing BRITISH in the BRITISH Museum: m.guardian.ng/opinion/there-… 5 days ago
- RT @poetryinstone: Australian PM to return three National Gallery idols stolen from India..more important we reveal the name of the actual… 6 days ago
- RT @claytoncubitt: Banana art update. There's a new banana. Floodwaters will engulf this entire town in our lifetime. https://t.co/j67880vS… 6 days ago
- RT @poetryinstone: We dont do our work in #BringOurGodsHome looking for credits but this plate ridicules our work n is a traversity. Hope… 1 week ago
- RT @LAmineddoleh: Case to watch: seizure of Head of "Alexander" from Safani Gallery. Marble found & purportedly stolen from Roman Forum. NY… 1 week ago
- RT @Luis_pastor: Ok, decidme una frase que se pueda decir visitando un museo y durante el sexo. https://t.co/w7kXlMs6xV 1 week ago
- RT @poetryinstone: Happy to be part of @Indorelitfest hoping to bring more awareness to combat the illicit trafficking of Antiquities n #Br… 1 week ago
- RT @MichaelDPress: Read @aliceestevenson at @ASOResearch's Ancient Near East Today on how finds from British excavations in Egypt were dist… 1 week ago
What we’re talking about
AAMD American Numismatic Society antiquities Aphrodite archaeology Arnold-Peter Weiss art crime Arthur Houghton Art of the Past Asian Civilizations Museum book review Cambodia Chasing Aphrodite Christies Cleveland Museum Dallas Museum of Art David Gill Dietrich von Bothmer Douglas Latchford Edoardo Almagià Elie Borowski Events FBI Gary Vikan Getty Museum Getty Villa Giacomo Medici Gianfranco Becchina Hugh Eakin illicit antiquities Immigration and Customs Enforcement India Italy J. Paul Getty Museum J. Paul Getty Trust James Cuno james grimaldi Jane Levine Jim Cuno Jiri Frel Khmer Kimbell Art Museum Koh Ker Loot looted antiquities looting Marion True Metropolitan Museum of Art Michaela Boland Michael Padgett museums Nancy Wiener National Gallery of Australia New York Review of Books Nomos AG Norton Simon Museum numismatics Princeton University repatriation Robert Hecht Robin Symes Ron Radford SAFE scandal Selina Mohamed Sicily Sotheby's Subhash Kapoor Tamil Nadu The Art Newspaper Timothy Potts Turkey Vijay Kumar Walters Museum of Art WikiLootTon Cremer’s MSN
- Nieuws weekend – De Klimt zat achter de klimop.
- When is a fake not a fake? Forgery fiasco involving Prince Charles highlights grey areas of the art world
- Kwame Opoku – WILL OTHERS FOLLOW JESUS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY RETURNING LOOTED BENIN ARTEFACTS TO NIGERIA?
- Dresden Green Vault, a lesson to be learned
- Returning museum objects to former colonies risks ‘denying Britain’s history’
Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire
- Antiquities Trafficking Indictment Unsealed: Latchford Prosecution Raises Legal Issues
- At the Crossroads of Cultural Heritage Preservation: SCOTUS Rules on the Peace Cross and the Establishment Clause
- El Salvador Seeks U.S. Renewal of Cultural Property MoU
- CPAC Considers Import Restrictions on Cultural Property from Chile and Jordan
- The Met's Surrender of a Gilded Egyptian Coffin Presents a Golden Opportunity to Deter Antiquities Looting
Paul Barford’s Portable Antiquities and Heritage Issues
Derek Fincham’s Illicit Cultural Property
David Gill’s Looting Matters
Conflict Antiquities
- Help the Guardian locate Benin bronze statues in the UK
- reputation-laundering through the art market in Europe
- cleaning dirty money from tainted antiquities and cleaning dirty money with clean antiques, in North America, Europe and Asia: art trading and money laundering
- mental health and treasure-hunting
- sex and treasure: women’s participation in looting and trafficking of Mediterranean antiquities
The Association for Research into Crimes against Art
- The mysteries of the mysteriously appearing Klimt
- 2nd Brazilian Conference on Law & Art
- "Hold on to your hat": Antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, a/k/a “Pakpong Kriangsak”
- At least 120 pieces of papyri appear to be missing from the Egypt Exploration Society collection
- Carabinieri, EUROPOL , EUROJUST investigation, code named: "Achea"
Larry Rothfield’s The Punching Bag
- Against "Displacement": A Thought about Hilgert's "Culture Matters"
- 100 antiquities police officers needed, 7 on the books
- A due diligence checklist -- the starting point for a calibrated taxing system for antiquities or for a registration system
- A possible second-best solution for orphaned antiquities?
- U.S. Senators are pushing for Native American Artifact legislation -- but will it do any good?
Elginism — Repatriation Issues
Lee Rosenbaum’s CultureGrrl
- August in December: Uribe Becomes Sotheby’s Ex-Expert of Impressionist/Modern Art (with video)
- The Late Donald Marron & Me: An Affable Collector with a Keen Eye for Contemporary Keepers
- Geffen Gaffes: My View from Orchestra Row B of the NY Philharmonic’s Planned Makeover
- Blaming the Victim: The Shocking “Green Vault” Assault at Dresden’s Royal Palace (with video)
- Monkman Mischief: How Kent’s “Miss Chief Eagle Testickle” May Prank the Met
Law Enforcement
- FBI Art Squad FBI’s Art Detail
- Carabinieri Art Squad The Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale, Italy’s Art Squad.
- Interpol Art Detail Interpol has tracked the trade in stolen art since 1947.
- ICE ICE Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Investigations
Museums
- The Getty The website of the J. Paul Getty Trust
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Greek and Roman Galleries of the Met
- Boston MFA Art of the Ancient World at the Boston MFA
Related Books
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The Sidon Bull’s Head: Court Record Documents a Journey Through the Illicit Antiquities Trade
The journey of an ancient sculpture of a bull’s head from its theft during the Lebanese civil war through the shadowy corners and winding pathways of the international antiquities black market. Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged Art Loss Register, Carlos Picon, Christies, Christos Tsirogiannis, Frieda Tchakos, Geneva Freeport, Hicham Aboutaam, Lebanon, Lynda and William Beierwaltes, Manhattan District Attorney, MAthew Bogdanos, Max Bernheimer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Michael Steinhardt, Phoenix Ancient Art, Robin Symes, Sarkis Khoury, Sharon Cott, Sotheby's, Temple of Eshmun, Thomas Campbell
Asia Week Raids: New Details on the Christie’s Seizures
This week, a series of five federal raids during New York’s Asia week led to the seizure of at least eight looted antiquities and the arrest of at least one dealer. This is the first of several posts that … Continue reading
Optical Due Diligence: Art Loss Register Claims To Vet Ancient Art. Does it?
UPDATE 8/9/14: The Sunday Times has published another devastating report on the Art Loss Register’s business practices. ALR Founder Julian Radcliffe admits paying thieves to recover stolen art in a dozen cases and is described as a “fence” by senior European … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged antiquities, Art Loss Register, Bonhams, Carabinieri, Christies, David Gill, due diligence, Julian Radcliffe, Sotheby's, Subhash Kapoor
The Getty’s Looted Amber: A Window into the Museum’s Deepening Dilemma
In Saturday’s Los Angeles Times, I have a story about Getty Museum’s efforts to find the true origins of its massive antiquities collection. Here’s how the story starts: In the wake of a scandal over its acquisition of looted antiquities, … Continue reading
Tagged ancient amber, Arthur Houghton, Ascoli Satriano, Claire Lyons, Colin Renfrew, Faya Causey, Fritz Burki, Giacomo Medici, Gianfranco Becchina, Gordon McLendon, Head of Hades, J. Paul Getty Museum, James Cuno, Jiri Frel, looted antiquities, Marion True, Morgantina, Robert Hecht, Robin Symes, Tax fraud
Dallas Museum of Art Returns Orpheus Mosaic, Five Other Looted Treasures in Announcing New Art Loans Initiative
The Dallas Museum of Art has agreed to return six looted antiquities from its collection and announced a broad new initiative to exchange expertise and artwork with cultural institutions around the world. “The problems of illegal excavation and the illicit … Continue reading
New Wave of Returns: Hundreds of Looted Antiquities Recovered from the Met, Princeton and Others
On Jan 20, the Italian art squad announced the return of more than 200 antiquities from US museums, companies, collectors and dealers — all the product of illegal excavation or theft. The Metropolitan Museum of Art returned forty pieces belonging to … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged Carabinieri, Cleveland Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Dietrich von Bothmer, Edoardo Almagià, FBI, Giacomo Medici, Gianfranco Becchina, Humana, Indiana University Art Museum, Jerome Eisenberg, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, Michael Padgett, Princeton University, Robert Hecht, Robin Symes, Royal-Athena Gallery, San Antonio Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art
Did Museum Officials Violate US Laws? Houghton on The McClain Doctrine and Crimes of Knowledge
Whenever we talk with Arthur Houghton — the Getty’s former antiquities curator who we’ll be on stage with this Saturday at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore — he asks a provocative question: did he or any other museum official violate … Continue reading
A Call from Robert Hecht: I’m Not a Squealer
Robert Hecht called the other day to say he’d received the copy of Chasing Aphrodite that we sent to his home on Boulevard La Tour Maubourg in Paris. Hecht is the American antiquities dealer who has dominated the trade for more … Continue reading
Loot at the Seattle Art Museum?
While in Seattle last month for a talk at Elliot Bay Bookstore, I stumbled across an interesting piece in the Seattle Art Museum’s permanent collection of ancient art: a marble Roman portrait head of the Emperor Claudius. Why interesting? Here’s the … Continue reading