Egyptian antiques taken from New York's Met investigated by Louvre
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Prosecutors in New York have confiscated five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former director of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
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Egyptian antiques taken from New York's Met investigated by Louvre
Prosecutors in New York confiscated five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former director of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
According to the Manhattan district attorney's office, the artifacts, which include a series of painted linen fragments dated between 250 and 450 BC and portraying a scene from the Book of Exodus, are worth more than $3 million.
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Linen fragments representing a scene from the Book of Exodus (AFP)
A New York state judge ordered their forfeiture on May 19.
A spokesperson for the district attorney told AFP Thursday that "the pieces were seized pursuant to the warrant," adding that they are "related" to the probe in Paris in which the former Louvre Director from 2013-2021 Jean-Luc Martinez was charged with fraud and complicity in "concealing the origin of criminally obtained works by false endorsement."
The French investigative weekly Canard Enchaine reported that the swindle is suspected to involve numerous additional art experts.
According to The Art Newspaper, which broke the story first, the five works stolen from the Met were acquired between 2013 and 2015.
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The gilded coffin of Nedjemankh, which was returned to Egypt last year (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
A Met official told AFP that the museum was "a victim of an international criminal organization" in an earlier statement.
The gilded sarcophagus of the priest Nedjemankh was returned to Egypt in 2019 after New York authorities decided it had been stolen during the 2011 protests against ex-President Hosni Mubarak.
The Met acquired the coffin in 2017 and afterward stated that it was the victim of fraudulent assertions and bogus papers.
French authorities are also looking into whether plundered items from other Arab countries were bought by the Louvre's Abu Dhabi branch.
According to a 2019 report by the Manhattan district attorney, some of those charged in the investigation, including Roben Dib, the owner of a gallery in Hamburg who is presently in detention, were engaged in the sale of the sarcophagus to the Met.
The artwork depicting the Book of Exodus is worth $1.6 million. A $1.2 million painted picture of a woman dating from AD 54 to 68 is also among the five items.
