Louvre antiquities trafficking case escalates
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Following the scandal involving a former Louvre director, France's Culture Minister has formed a task force to review museum acquisitions procedures.
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Louvre Abu Dhabi (Archive)
The case of possible Egyptian antiquities trafficking, which has garnered widespread media attention since the indictment of former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez, is quickly becoming a matter of state concern.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi, like the Louvre, has decided to become a civil party in the criminal investigation into possible antiquities trafficking.
"Following the media revelations, the Emirati museum wants access to the investigation files in order to establish the facts and act accordingly," said the Louvre Abu Dhabi's Parisian lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer to The Art Newspaper.
Another criminal complaint in connection with the case has been filed in Geneva.
On June 6, Swiss collector Jean-Claude Gandur sued the Aboutaam brothers for the "forged provenance" of a Fayum portrait he purchased in November 2014 from the Phoenix Gallery (Geneva, New York).
According to information obtained by The Art Newspaper, the portrait was sold to the gallery in November 2013 for $378,000 by the main suspect in the case, Roben Dib, at the Pierre Bergé auction house in Paris, where his alleged accomplice Christophe Kunicki was working as an expert.
It is worth noting that the artwork was presented to the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the 1930s with the same provenance as the "Tutankhamun stele" sold by Kunicki: a Cairo dealer named Habib Tawadros and a German navy officer named Johannes Behrens.
"We believe that this Behrens never existed or, at the very least, was never a collector," Gandur told the French daily Le Monde, which broke the story.
France's ministers of culture and foreign affairs have decided to keep Martinez as a special ambassador for cultural cooperation, but have asked him to withdraw from discussions about art trafficking "pending clarification of his legal situation," the statement added.
Martinez's lawyer, François Artuphel, said as qouted by The Art Newspaper that his client "has no doubt that his explanations will prove his complete innocence and establish the facts and responsibilities," implying that he may have been "a victim, like the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Egyptian authorities."
In a statement, Rima Abdul Malak, the new Minister of Culture, reaffirmed France's "constant and firm commitment against art trafficking."
The Emirati museum's license to use the name Louvre was extended by ten years to 2042 last December, adding $173 million to the Louvre's projected revenue of $1.5 billion.
The trafficking scandal could have diplomatic ramifications in a region where the UAE and Egypt are close allies of France.
Furthermore, the Emirates are Egypt's main financiers, which is being strained by the collapse of the tourism industry, rising food prices, and other financial difficulties.
The trafficking scandal could be "a blow to French Egyptology," which France has proudly championed since Napoleonic times, according to the conservative daily Le Figaro.
