The gold brooch from ancient Greece was worth $1.3 million. A body-sized 3,500-year-old coffin, known as the Larnax, decorated with wavy patterns, is worth $1 million. But of the 55 antiquities returned to Greece this week by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the most prominent was a 2,500-year-old statue of an athletic teenager known as …
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When the Nazis invaded Greece in 1941, Julius Ringel, a major general in the German army, took an active part in initiating illegal excavations on the island of Crete, where Minoan culture flourished more than 3,000 years ago. The land was rich in artifacts from the island’s cultural heritage, and Ringel, often with the help …
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Roshan Mishra remembers standing inside the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia looking into the eyes of a woman. wooden goddess believed to be the same artifact that disappeared from a local temple in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, where he lived nearly 50 years ago. Mishra, director of the Taragaon Museum in …
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The Kapoor case was one of the largest prosecutions for illegal antiquities in the United States, leading to eight defendants and five convictions for stolen property, fraud and other charges between 2013 and this year. His lawyer in New York, Georges G. Lederman, clarified the length of time Mr Kapoor was already in prison, saying …
Continue reading “Authorities Return 248 Looted Antiquities to India”
The Kapoor case was one of the largest prosecutions for illegal antiquities in the United States, leading to eight defendants and five convictions for stolen property, fraud and other charges between 2013 and this year. His lawyer in New York, Georges G. Lederman, clarified the length of time Mr Kapoor was already in prison, saying …
Continue reading “Authorities Return 248 Looted Antiquities to India”
Cambodia has begun pressing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan to document how Cambodian officials obtained dozens of Khmer Empire antiquities that they believe were looted during the country’s decades of war and turmoil, citing new evidence. Although it forced Cambodia Met and other museums He says that this effort is much more extensive …
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For decades, customers interested in rare items of all kinds – ancient coins, sarcophagus masks, prehistoric fossils – went to Mehrdad Sadigh’s gallery near the Empire State Building in Manhattan. Items came with certificates of authenticity, and the gallery’s website was filled with praise from customers who appreciated the elegant touch it brought to its …
Continue reading “Antiquities Dealer Admits Mass-Production Counterfeits He Has Sold For Years”
The operator of a Manhattan gallery known for its expertise in ancient Asian works has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and possession of stolen goods in connection with the smuggling of looted treasures from India and Southeast Asia. Some of the items he sold to major museums in Australia and Singapore, and others were …
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Looted antiques have been a priority for law enforcement for years, not only because the smuggling of antiquities damages the cultural heritage of their country of origin, but also because illegal sales sometimes finance the operations of drug gangs or terrorist organizations. But prosecutors say Mehrdad Sadigh, a New York antiques dealer whose gallery has …
Continue reading “Investigators Say It Has Been Selling Many Counterfeit Antiquities For Decades”