Published on September 8, 2022 at 18:04
When New York City goes after stolen art – ©Grant Faint
For several years, the Met, one of the most prestigious museums in New York, has been accused by American justice of exhibiting dozens of works looted in other countries. Here’s the flip side of this very embarrassing story…
The American press learned on Wednesday 6 September that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (most often abbreviated to “Met”), a veritable institution in the art world, was subject to two searches in mid-July which led to the seizure of 22 antiquities.
With a total value of $11 million, this lot of items, including a sculpture of a Hindu mother goddess from the mid-6thAnd century and a marble head of Athena, would have passed through several networks of art traffickers before being displayed in the Met’s galleries.
Several names of the criminals involved were mentioned by the American inspectors, including that of the British Robin Symes, a trader who fell into disgrace after being convicted of concealment in 2005, and that of the Italian Gianfranco Becchina, considered by all specialists “the godfather of the art mafia”.
Six searches in one year…
This isn’t the first art seizure that directly affects the Met’s collections. Since 2017, the museum has been subject to nine searches (of which six were ordered in the last twelve months). A particularly embarrassing accumulation for the institution, which is seeing its prestigious image gradually tarnished.
One of these searches led, last May, to the seizure of five objects of Egyptian origin. Five antiquities that had been, according to Alvin Bragg (New York State Attorney for Manhattan), looted from archaeological sites in Egypt during the Arab Spring of 2011, before being auctioned by the Parisian company “Pierre Bergé & Associés” at the Met, between 2013 and 2015. A scam organized by gangs that led to the arrest and indictment of nine people in France, including the former director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez.
700 works returned in 14 countries
These seizures at the Met are part of a vast antiquities restitution campaign that has been underway for two years by New York State justice. Between 2020 and 2022 – the last restitution ceremonies with Italian and Egyptian representatives took place a few days ago – almost 700 works were returned in fourteen countries.
These pieces have been recovered by various galleries in the Big Apple, but also by major collectors such as billionaire Michael Steinhardt, who had to hand over to the authorities almost 180 stolen works for a total value estimated at 70 million dollars…
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