Egyptian Artifacts Seized From The Met After Being Involved In Smuggling Ring

As part of an investigation into an international antiquities smuggling ring, five Egyptian artifacts have been seized from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, amounting to US$3 million.

The crackdown was carried out by the New York District Attorney’s Office, which deems in its warrant that the artifacts had been obtained by criminal means and constitute as evidence for an ongoing investigation. The confiscation comes after the indictment of the Louvre’s former president and director, Jean-Luc Martinez, who has been accused of smuggling rare artifacts. 

Among those that the DA’s office has confiscated are two pieces belonging to the Met’s Egyptian department, one of which was a Fayum portrait, which is a panel of a painting placed over the face of mummies. The artwork, dated back to 60 BCE, depicts a woman in a blue dress.

Another work that was seized is a set of five fragments of a wall-hanging that dates back to the fourth or fifth century, and is regarded as the oldest depiction of the Book of Exodus.  

Roben Dib, a German-Lebanese dealer, had owned four of the five seized artifacts and has been linked to several other instances of selling looted artifacts to the Museum of Modern Art and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Currently, he is detained in Paris as he awaits trial for money laundering and gang fraud.   

The two Egyptian pieces were sold through a Paris auction house, Pierre Bergé & Associates, whose dealer and archeology expert Christopher Kunicki has also been indicted on suspicion of selling antiquities obtained from three brothers who were working in collaboration with Dib.

[via The Vulture and ARTnews, Photo 15331851 © Breakers | Dreamstime.com]