New York: Phoenix Ancient Art selling looted artifacts?

From the artnet, written by Henri Neuendorf, January 11, 2018. Investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office seized six artifacts valued at a combined $450,000 from New York antiquities dealers Phoenix Fine Art last Friday. According to a search warrant issued by the New York Supreme Court, the items taken from the gallery include a…

NEW YORK: Looted Antiques Seized From Billionaire’s Home, Prosecutors Say

The New York Times, January 5, 2018, written by J. C. McKinley Investigators raided the office and the Manhattan home of the billionaire Michael H. Steinhardt on Friday afternoon, carrying off several ancient works that prosecutors say were looted from Greece and Italy. Mr. Steinhardt, a hedge-fund manager and philanthropist, has been collecting art from…

TURKEY: largest ever haul of ancient statues and coins seized

From Reuters.com, writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Dominic Evans and Pritha Sarkar, December 21, 2017 ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police said on Thursday they had rescued thousands of artefacts dating back to Anatolian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations in the largest operation to combat smuggling of ancient treasures in the country’s history. Among the items…

EAA-conference in Barcelona, September 2018: call for contributions

At the annual conference of the EAA in Barcelona, 5-8 September 2018, our committee organises a session on: CULTURAL PROPERTY: FROM LOOTING AND ILLEGAL TRADE TO RESTITUTION Theme: Archaeology and the European Year of Cultural Heritage (Session #763) Author: Dr Mödlinger, Marianne (France) – Université Bordeaux Montaigne Organisors: Dr Kairiss, Andris (Latvia) – Latvian Academy…

The freeport in Geneva – news in Italian

Dal sole24ore, Dicember 4, 2017, scritto da R. Galullo e A. Mincuzzi. Otto minuti di cammino separano la costruzione di vetro e acciaio del quartier generale di Ubs dal più inaccessibile museo della terra. Carouge, nella parte sudoccidentale di Ginevra, è un luogo di misteri. Il palazzo dell’Ubs ospitava fino a qualche anno fa la…

PARIS: auction of doubtful Roman marble statue at Millon

As recently discovered by Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist and Affiliated Researcher in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow, Lot no. 292, from the forthcoming auction of Millon, on Friday, 8th of December, in Paris, at Hotel Drouot, has quiet some doubtful origin. According to the Millon…

Switzerland: Basel sells looted antiquities

Two articles from the Basler Zeitung (also here), written by Raphael Suter, October 31, 2017 (in German). See also the Tageswoche (also German). Um die Verfahrenskosten zu decken, verkauft der Kanton Basel-Stadt einige Kunstgegenstände unsicherer Provenienz. Macht sich der Staat so nicht selber zum Hehler? Die rechtliche Situation ist klar, die moralische sehr viel komplexer.…

Egypt: Antiquities Ministry struggles with smuggling

From Al-Monitor, written by Hani Sameer, November 21, 2017. Egypt recently recovered another cache of smuggled antiquities, bringing attention once again to the challenges of protecting the country’s ancient artifacts. Earlier this month, customs officers at Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates confiscated 354 artifacts dating from different eras of ancient Egyptian and…

SPAIN: Thousands of archaeological items recovered

From Euroweekly, written by Karl Smallman, November 18, 2017. POLICE officers in Spain who raided the home of a couple have discovered a hoard of several thousands of archaeological pieces. At the property in San Fernando, Cadiz, Guardia Civil agents found coins from the Roman to the medieval period, buttons, keys, beads, thimbles, rings, bullets…