A leading antiquities dealer, H. Aboutaam, sued The Wall Street Journal on Monday (you can read the lawsuit here), asserting he had been damaged by an article in May that said he was under investigation for possibly trafficking in artifacts looted by ISIS. In the libel suit, the dealer, Hicham Aboutaam, said he has never…
Long-time dealers Ali and Hicham Aboutaam are under scrutiny, as authorities in multiple countries look into how Islamic State finances itself by trafficking in ancient objects. In early March, Swiss law-enforcement officials pulled over a vehicle on a Geneva road and, after a search, discovered an ancient oil lamp, people familiar with the matter say.…
The following article, copied from artsy.net, and written by John Zarobell, gives a very good impression about the functioning of freeports. Art is one of the most unregulated industries on the planet. Auction houses provide a space for exchange with prices determined in an open public forum, but many aspects of the auction house business…
On July 13th of 2017, the European Commission proposed new rules to stop imports in the Union of cultural goods illicitly exported from their country of origin (see the press release). Cultural goods are items of which countries consider that they have great artistic, historical or archaeological value and which belong to the country’s cultural…
EAA-Committee on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 