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description=The Hunt for Looted Antiquities in the World s Museums;

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rrested a barcelona antiquities dealer jaume bagot for alleged trafficking in looted antiquities sold by isis last week italian authorities seized objects said to have been looted in egypt by isis affiliates though details have yet to emerge and in may 2017 the wall street journal reported that the new york gallery phoenix ancient art was entangled in an investigation of isis loot a claimed the owners say is false and libelous this week the issue hit home when federal authorities in los angeles moved to forfeit a 1 ton 18 foot long ancient mosaic of hercules 11th labor that was seized in 2016 from a naturalized syrian man living in palmdale ca the government alleges the massive mosaic was looted in syria and smuggled into the united states with falsified documents see complaint below the fbi has been investigating the owner of the mosaic mohamad yassin alcharihi since 2015 when he hired the company soo hoo customs brokers to import the mosaic through the port of long beach the mosaic was imported along with two other mosaics and 81 modern vases and declared as ornamental art and ceramic tiles with a total value of 2 199 alcharihi said he had purchased the mosaics and vases from ahmet bostanci in defne hatay turkey earlier that year an invoice shows the sale took place june 4 2015 but another document found in his house claimed alcharihi had purchased the rolled up mosaic carpet in a 2009 yard sale and had been in the seller s family since the early 1970s when interviewed the seller said she was alcharihi s neighbor and had written the receipt at alcharihi s request to document her sale of a small carpet not a 1 ton mosaic it appears this false provenance story was intended to cover the mosaic s true origins federal investigators interviewed two artists who helped restore the mosaic alcharihi told the first an artist who had done work for new york city metro that the mosaic had been peeled off a floor 25 years ago rolled up and stored while alcharihi tried to get it out of turkey the second artist spent 20 days in alcharihi s palmdale garage restoring the mosaic alcharihi submitted photos of the mosaic to an auction house including one that appeared to show the mosaic in the ground an expert for the government examined the photos and later the mosaic itself and concluded it was likely byzantine with iconography consistent with mosaics found near idlib syria idlib in the northwest corner of syrian near the turkish border has been at the center of fierce fighting between president bashar al assad s government forces and opposition fighters and isis at times since 2011 in late 2014 the city was the focus of a rebel offensive against government forces that included al nusra an al qaeda affiliated rebel group alcharihi told investigators he worked in sales and sold salvaged cars through a cousin in togo africa he said he had bought the mosaics from a well known artist in turkey who was syrian and lives in saudi arabia but traveled often to turkey he claimed to have paid 12 000 for the mosaic and vases and admitted undervaluing them to avoid import duties court records show he also admitted the mosaic was ancient unlike the modern vases in emails seized by authorities alchahiri told a prospective buyer a different story the mosaic piece was found in a destructed historical building in ariha county in idleb city north western of syria on land owned by his family the picture of the mosaic was taken in situ in 2010 by an expert who removed the mosaic after obtaining a removal and transfer permit and sent it to turkey for restoration in the email alchahiri included an image of the mosaics in situ alchahiri s associate obtained an estimate of 100 000 to 200 000 market value for the mosaic and sent pictures of it to an unnamed uk auction house when the auction house inquired about its provenance the associate was forthcoming syria as long has you have documentation proof that they left syria before 2010 we might be able to accept these if they are legally shipped to the uk the auction house responded later offering an estimate of 40 000 to 60 000 british pounds or usd 60 000 to 91 000 the complaint does not say what came of the proposed sale nor explain why it took two years after the seizure for federal officials to file a forfeiture complaint in los angeles this week update in a petition filed in october 2016 alchahiri acting as his own attorney challenged the government seizure and submitted a raft of documents to support his claim that it was legally exported alchahiri objected to the seizure on several grounds alleging repeatedly that the fbi s only basis for the seizure was islamaphobia and racism some of his assertions are difficult to understand such as his claim that the mosaic makes a certain statement about greek mythology which is muffled and stifled by the illegal seizure of the mosaic and the continued refusal to return such property for display to the public the 70 pages of attachments to his petition offer new details on the case including photos of the extensive restoration done by stephen j miotto of miotto mosaics art studios a list of items seized during the fbi raid includes a reference to heritage auctions a dallas tx based auction house with an office in london that specializes in ancient coins in another document a lawyer for alchahiri states he is a naturalized citizen of the unitedstates originally from syria who operates the business of importing buying and selling ancient artifacts from overseas alchahiri became interested in importation and sales of artifacts in about 3 years due to good connections and his knowledge of people working in cheap labor departments of organizations involving artifacts in the same letter the lawyer notes that alchahiri was concerned about documents the fbi found in his safe may be misconstrued and may be improperly viewed as possibly incriminating the purpose was to mislead non serious buyers and possible thieves who had already begun to inquire about the valuable mosaic subsequent to its restoration the lawyer stated the letter appears to be referring to the false provenance documents described in the complaint which purport that alchahiri bought the mosaic carpet in a 2009 yard sale from his neighbor who claimed to have had it in the family since 1970 here are the court filings in usa vs one ancient mosaic view this document on scribd view this document on scribd share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on reddit opens in new window reddit email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading 2 comments posted in news tagged ahmet bostanci jaume bagot looting los angeles mohaman yassin alcharihi mosaic soo hoo customs brokers syria the sidon bull s head court record documents a journey through the illicit antiquities trade posted on september 24 2017 8 comments a remarkable document filed with new york s supreme court on friday reconstructs the journey of an ancient sculpture of a bull s head from its theft during the lebanese civil war through the shadowy corners and winding pathways of the international antiquities black market the filing an application for a turnover order filed by deputy da mathew bogdanos recounts a grand jury investigation that traced the stolen relic through a who s who of the antiquities trade before ending up on loan at the metropolitan museum of art where it was seized in july the 66 page filing is worth reading in full as it bristles with insights into the antiquities trade that bogdanos the author of thieves of bagdad has collected over more than a decade investigating antiquities trafficking networks it is also a testament to the type of dogged investigation required to uncover the true history of a stolen antiquity bogdanos investigation included the use of grand jury subpoenas search warrants interviews with witnesses in several countries and thousands of pages of shipping documents customs forms and email correspondence nonetheless even this investigation has been unable to illuminate those well appointed shadows where money changes hands and legitimate but all too inconvenient questions of the provenance and ownership history of the objects are frequently considered outre and ever so gauche bogdanos writes indeed because so many shadows remain and because the farther back we go the darker and more impenetrable are those shadows it is best to trace the possession of the bull s head backward anyone familiar with investigations of mediterranean smuggling networks over the past two decades will recognize the dozen names associated with the object s past the following summary of that shadowy journey does not do justice to the tale but highlights the key players july 8 1967 the bull s head was excavated from the temple of eshmun in sidon lebanon by french archaeologist maurice dunand as part of a state sponsored excavation 1979 amidst the raging lebanese civil war the bull s head and other artifacts from eshmun were transferred to beirut and then to a storage area of the byblos citadel for safekeeping 1981 armed members of the phalangist paramilitary group seized objects from the citadel including the bull s head after negotiations with the antiquities directorate the phalangists return many of the objects to the citadel but the bull s head and dozens of other objects are not among them and disappear into the black market 1980s the bull s head is associated with the george lotfi collection of beirut and paris and with frieda tchacos in zurich nefer gallery according to a subsequent claim by the met s curator of ancient art joan mertens her source for this information is never clarified or documented april 11 1991 four sculptures stolen from eshmun appear in an auction by the numismatic ancient art gallery in zurich they are seized and returned to lebanon december 1994 sotheby s offers a male torso and a sarcophagus fragment from eshmun for sale both are eventually seized and returned to lebanon several more eshmun objects are recovered over the years may 18 1996 the bull s head re appears in shipping documents and was delivered to london antiquities dealer robin symes new york penthouse at the four seasons hotel on 57th street as bogdanos notes there is not a single piece of paper known to exist on or about the bull s head c 17 between its disappearance from the basement storage room of the byblos jubayl citadel on august 14 1981 and its brief appearance in the transcon invoices in the summer of 1996 a neon sign flashing stolen would have been more subtle and less insidious november 27 1996 symes sells the bull s head for 1 2 million to lynda and william beierwaltes of colorado who display it in their dining room while symes assures them the object is authentic as bogdanos notes there was not a whisper not even the faintest hint of a whisper about whether it was a lawful antiquity indeed the lawfulness of the bull s head c 17 does not appear to have been part of any documented conversation between the beierwaltes and symes the bull s head appears on the market like athena full grown from the brow of zeus bogdanos writes one of several flourishes in his filing 1998 the bull s head and other objects in the beierwaltes collection are displayed in an article in house and garden christos tsirogiannis a forensic archaeologist specializing in identifying illicit antiquities identified many looted antiquities in the beierwaltes collection by matching the photographs in the article to photographs of looted antiquities contained in dealer archives 2004 the beierwaltes ask max bernheimer head of christi e s ancient art antiquities department to appraise their antiquities collection he appraised 115 objects in the collection at 51 5 million but never offered it at auction symes was revealed as their main supplier the source of 97 of the 99 objects that listed a prior owner symes was not just their main supplier he was to all intents and purposes their only supplier the direct the essential and clearly much used link in a supply chain that started with the tombaroli and ended with the beierwaltes bogdanos writes 2005 the beierwaltes approach hicham aboutaam at phoenix ancient art about selling the bull s head and other antiquities in their collection which is estimated to be worth 95 million phoenix appraises the value of the bull s head at 1 5 million 2006 phoenix ships the bull s head and other objects from the beierwaltes to geneva where it is kept in the geneva freeport according to hicham aboutaam and as is standard procedure with shipments to the freeports and hence part of the sine qua non of their existence the bull s head went directly from the geneva airport in a swiss customs padlocked truck to the geneva freeport and it left the freeport the same way 2008 phoenix requested a search for the bull s head in the art loss register database of stolen art the alr had been provided details about the stolen bull s head in 2000 but mysteriously failed to enter it into their database of stolen art alr issued a certificate for the object a fact that in bogdanos words highlight s the dangers of relying on an alr search and nothing more for provenance research 2008 phoenix ancient arts publishes images of the bull s head in their geneva catalog in advance of showing the bull s head at the 24th biennale des antiquaires at the grand palais in paris after the paris show it is shipped back to geneva september 2009 the bull s head is shipped to new york where hedge fund billionaire michael steinhardt expressed an interest after seeing it in the phoenix catalog but claimed in an email he was too broke to buy it at the time august 10 201o steinhardt acquired the bull s head for 700 000 and left it on display at phoenix ancient art s new york gallery october 2010 the bull s head is loaned to by met by steinhardt through phoenix ancient art gallery the only reference to its provenance is a single line of six words ex american private collection collected in 1980 s 1990 s when the met presses for more detail phoenix says the beierwaltes aquired it from symes 2014 the beierwaltes declare bankruptcy declaring that their primary business for much of their adult lives has been the acquisition management and sale of an extremely extensive and valuable body of art works in a category of art known as antiquities april 2014 carlos picon the curator in charge of the met s greek and roman department noticed that the bull s head on loan from steinhardt appeared to be the same bull s head missing from the eshmun excavations the object was removed from display and aboutaam was notified april 16 2014 given the revelation the beierwaltes re acquired the bull s head from steinhardt for 560 000 700k minus aboutaam s 20 commission steinhardt receives a piece of equal value from aboutaam october 2016 met general counsel sharon cott writes...