Looted artefacts stashed by British art thief recovered by Italian and Swiss police

A carabiniere stands next to recovered archaeological artifacts in Rome, on March 22, 2016. Italian and Swiss art police have busted open an international art smuggling ring and recovered archaeological artifacts stolen from Italy and destined for sale in Britain, Japan and the United States. Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said "45 crates containing tens of thousands of archaeological relics of extraordinary quality" were discovered after a joint investigation by Rome and Geneva into looted antiquities. The haul included Etruscan, painted sarcophagi representing human figures, a Roman sarcophagus, marble statues of animals and pieces of the floors and walls of a temple, all dating to between the 7th century BC and 2nd century AD. ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP.

ROME (AFP).- Italian and Swiss police have recovered priceless archaeological artefacts stolen from Italy and stored by a notorious British antiquities dealer, the culture ministry said Tuesday. The haul, worth nine million euros ($10 million), was discovered in 2014 in a storage unit at the Geneva Freeport rented by Britain's disgraced Robin Symes, a giant in the illegal antiquities trade with ties to Italian tomb raiders.

"Forty-five crates containing tens of thousands of archaeological relics of extraordinary quality" were returned to Rome in January, said Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, as they were unveiled to the press for the first time. The booty included Etruscan painted sarcophaguses representing human figures, a Roman sarcophagus, marble statues of animals and pieces of the floor and walls of a temple, all dating to between the 7th century BC and 2nd century AD. "They were stolen from digs in Sicily, Puglia, Campania and Calabria in the 1970s and 80s," said prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo, adding that the loot had been smuggled into the Freeport decades ago, where it lay hidden.

Italian sleuths tracked the artefacts after seizing incriminating papers from an art smuggler, and they were discovered during a joint sting with Swiss police on Symes's storage unit. Capaldo said the plot had been to restore the statues, tiles and sarcophaguses and sell them on to clients in Japan, Germany and other countries under false papers. "This is one of the most important recoveries of the last few decades," Franceschini said, adding that the antiquities would be restored and returned to the regions across southern Italy from which they were stolen.

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Romania seeks public help to pay for celebrated sculptor Constantin Brancusi masterpiece

This file photo taken on October 3, 2014 shows "The Wisdom of the Earth" sculpture displayed at Cotroceni Art Museum in Bucharest. Romania called on its citizens on March 17, 2016 to dig deep into their pockets to keep a masterpiece by celebrated sculptor Constantin Brancusi in the country. DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFP.

BUCHAREST (AFP).- Romania called on its citizens Thursday to dig deep into their pockets to keep a masterpiece by celebrated sculptor Constantin Brancusi in the country. The government in one of the EU's poorest countries has agreed to pay 11 million euros ($12.5 million) for "Wisdom of the Earth", considered one of the finest works by the Romanian-French artist. But the state is putting up just five million euros from its own coffers for the sculpture, a national treasure which was seized by the communist regime and has been at the heart of a decades-long legal battle over its ownership. It is seeking to raise the rest from the public and has launched an appeal to Romanian citizens, private companies and the diaspora, Culture Minister Vlad Alexandrescu said at a press conference. "We are poor but with such a work of art... it's now or never," added Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. He said Romania would be "poorer still" without the sculpture, a woman carved out of limestone sitting with her arms on her legs and staring enigmatically into the distance.

It is currently on display at the Cotroceni National Museum in Bucharest. The Romanian state has first refusal on all works considered national treasures and had been engaged in long negotiations to buy the Brancusi from the owners, who were initially demanding 20 million euros. The sculptor, who spend much of his life in Paris where he died in 1957, had sold "Wisdom of the Earth" to his Romanian friend and art lover Gheorghe Romascu in 1911. But it was seized in 1957 by the communist authorities claiming they intended to exhibit it at an art exhibition overseas. After a lengthy legal battle launched after the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, it was finally returned in 2010 to Romascu's descendants who announced four years later they intended to sell it. © 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse http://artdaily.com/news/85873/Romania-seeks-public-help-to-pay-for-celebrated-sculptor-Constantin-Brancusi-masterpiece#.VuwdYebN6sk

Scans show '90% chance' of hidden chambers in Tutankhamun tomb

Radar scans of the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun in the ancient necropolis of Luxor which show a "90 percent" chance of two hidden chambers, possibly containing organic material, during a press conference at the antiquities ministry in Cairo on ‎March 17, ‎2016. Archaeologists had scanned the tomb to find what some believe could be the resting place of Queen Nefertiti, the legendary beauty and wife of Tutankhamun's father whose mummy has never been found. MOHAMED EL-SHAHED / AFP.

CAIRO (AFP).- Radar scans of the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun in the ancient necropolis of Luxor showed a "90 percent" chance of two hidden chambers, possibly containing organic material, Egypt's antiquities minister said Thursday. Experts had scanned the tomb to find what a British archaeologist believes could be the resting place of Queen Nefertiti, the legendary beauty and wife of Tutankhamun's father whose mummy has never been found. Preliminary scans of Tutankhamun's tomb reveal "two hidden rooms behind the burial chamber" of the boy king, Antiquities Minister Mamduh al-Damati told reporters. "Yes, we have some empty space, but not total empty, including some organic and metal material," Damati said in English. When asked how certain he was, he said there was a "90 percent" chance.

A study by renowned British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves has said that Nefertiti's tomb could be in a secret chamber adjoining Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt. Reeves, professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona, believes one door of Tutankhamun's tomb could conceal the burial place of Nefertiti. According to him, Tutankhamun, who died unexpectedly, was buried hurriedly in an underground chamber probably not intended for him. His death would have forced priests to reopen Nefertiti's tomb 10 years after her death because the young pharaoh's own mausoleum had not yet been built. Damati said the two hidden chambers were behind the northern and the western walls of Tutankhamun's burial chamber. "What it means, we have two extensions" behind Tutankhamun's burial chamber, he said. When asked if the organic material could be a mummy, Damati said: "I cannot say. I can only say we have here some organic materials."

New test planned: Damati and Reeves differ on whose mummy they expect to find, with the minister previously saying that Tutankhamun's tomb may contain the mummy of Kiya, a wife of Akhenaten. On Thursday, he said a new radar test would be conducted on March 31. "Another radar, more improved, will check and measure for the dimensions of the wall behind and the thickness of the walls," Damati said, adding that the result of the new test would be announced in Luxor on April 1. Nefertiti played a major political and religious role in the 14th century BC. She actively supported her husband Akhenaten -- Tutankhamun's father -- who temporarily converted ancient Egypt to monotheism by imposing the cult of sun god Aton. Tutankhamun died aged 19 in 1324 BC after just nine years on the throne. His final resting place was discovered by another British Egyptologist, Howard Carter, in 1922. Experts are also scanning four pyramids to unravel the mysteries of the ancient monuments. Using infrared technology, a team of researchers have been scanning the pyramids of Khufu, also known as the Great Pyramid, and Khafre at Giza and the Bent and Red pyramids in Dahshur, all south of Cairo. Operation ScanPyramids, which aims to search for hidden rooms inside those four monuments, is expected to continue until the end of 2016.

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Asian art auctions kick off in New York after US special agents seize stolen Indian statues

By: ArtDaily.org on Monday, March 14th, 2016 at 8:48 pm

New York kicks off its annual week of Asian art sales Tuesday, red-faced after stolen Indian statues were impounded from Christie's and testing the market in the face of a Chinese economic slowdown. US special agents seized the sandstone statues, dating back to the eighth and 10th centuries, from Christie's auction house following an international investigation with assistance from India and Interpol, US officials said. Both objects had been valued at $150,000 and $300,000, and were listed in Christie's sale of Indian and Himalayan art on Tuesday. "We have withdrawn the lots and we are fully cooperating with the authorities on their investigation," a spokesperson for the auction house said. US agents said both artifacts came from a specific smuggler, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance warned art dealers and auction houses to do everything possible to avoid selling stolen cultural heritage. Christie's said the auction house would never
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Hotel Drouot auction house porters on trial for stealing 250 tonnes of valuables

French lawyer Leon Lef Forster, who defend nine Drouot commission agents arrives for "Union des commissionnaires de l'Hôtel des ventes" (UCHV) trial, where fifty persons working at Drouot auction house appear at the Justice Court of Paris for robbery on March 14, 2016. THOMAS SAMSON / AFP.

PARIS (AFP).- Porters from Paris' most famous auction house went on trial Monday, accused of systematically stealing 250 tonnes of valuable antiques, jewels and artworks, including a Chagall painting and rare Ming dynasty porcelain. Around 40 "Col Rouge" (red collars), named after their uniforms, along with six auctioneers from the Hotel Drouot auction house are on trial for charges of gang-related theft, conspiracy to commit a crime or handling stolen goods. The case against the employees was launched in 2009 after an anonymous tip alerted investigators to a Gustave Courbet painting that disappeared while being transported in 2003. Investigators allege institutionalised theft by the porters -- known as "Les Savoyards" as all members of the secretive group came from the Alpine region of Savoie.

Raids uncovered a mountain of treasures, including precious jewels and antique furniture, that went missing -- and the lavish lifestyle of the porters. One apparently drove a Porsche 911 and the latest BMW cabriolet, while another allegedly bought a Paris bar with the fruits if his spoils. The porters are accused of pilfering objects sent by the auction house to clear the homes of wealthy people after their deaths, taking items that weren't listed in the inventory. Some items were apparently then sold at auction. According to the prosecution, the practice -- known as "la yape" which means "theft" in Savoie slang -- was endemic and profits were shared among the group. The "Col Rouge", who wear black uniforms with red collars, have monopolised the transport and handling of valuables for the Hotel Drouot auction house since 1860.

Membership of the union is tightly controlled and limited to 110. Each new member was apparently brought into the fold by an existing member, and according to some testimonies the initiation process involved stealing something and sharing the proceeds with fellow insiders. Some of the porters allegedly defended the practice saying they were "stealing from the dead". Several dozen victims of the alleged scam are seeking damages in the trial, including the Hotel Drouot, which no longer uses the porters' services. "These thefts committed on such a large scale have shamed the institution," the auction house's lawyer Karim Beylouni said. The trial continues until April 4.

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Five Bacon paintings, estimated at 30 million euros, reported stolen in Madrid

File photo of Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud. Oil on canvas, each (unframed): 78 x 58 in. (198 x 147.5 cm.). Painted in 1969. Estimate on request. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.

MADRID (AFP).- Five paintings by British artist Francis Bacon worth an estimated 30 million euros have been stolen from the Madrid home of their owner, El Pais reported Sunday. Sources close to the investigation said the theft appeared to have been a highly-professional operation which took place while the owner was away, with the perpetrators disabling the alarm system. The thieves, who left no trace of their handiwork, had tracked the owner's movements to ensure he did not return to his apartment to catch them red-handed, they said. El Pais quoted the sources as saying the artwork, comprising portraits and landscapes, was stolen last June. It was not immediately clear why news of the theft was not made public until now.

It was also unclear exactly which paintings were involved but one contemporary art specialist told the paper they would be extremely difficult to sell. "It is not at all easy to sell a Francis Bacon, large or small without that getting to the ears of those who pore over such a rarified sector," said the expert, speaking on condition of anonymity. El Pais said police from a specialist arts and antiques unit had opened an investigation into the heist.

The owner of the paintings was a close friend of Bacon, the paper said. A police spokesman contacted by AFP Sunday was unable to confirm the story. Irish-born Bacon died in Madrid in 1992 aged 82 and his expressionist-surrealist works, which are often raw and emotional, remain hugely sought after. Bacon's death only enhanced his reputation and the 2013 sale of his 1969 work "Three Studies of Lucien Freud" fetched $142,405,000 at auction, a world record at the time. Art market information leader Artprice lists Bacon as one of 10 frontline modern artists alongside the likes of Picasso and Andy Warhol Warhol whose works comprise 18 percent of global sales.

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'Missing' Rembrandt to go on show at global art fair TEFAF Maastricht: Reports

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam), Smell. Oil on panel, 21.6 x 17.8 cm. PhotoÑ Galerie Talabardon et Gautier.

THE HAGUE (AFP).- A recently discovered painting by 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt will be the star attraction at one of the world's leading art fairs opening this week, Dutch media reported Wednesday. "The Unconscious Patient", also known as "Smell", a small paperback-sized panel believed to have been painted by Rembrandt in his late teens, was uncovered last September when it was put up for sale by a small auction house in New Jersey. "It was peeling at the edges and covered with a layer of dirt," daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported. The painting was originally listed with a maximum guide price of just $800 (725 euros). After a frantic bidding war by art collectors who suspected the panel's true origins, it was snapped up by Paris-based art trader Talabardon & Gautier for around one million dollars, said the report.

The painting forms part of five panels depicting the human senses which Rembrandt painted when he was 18 and 19 years old and they are among his earliest works. "Smell" depicts a barber or surgeon who has just performed a blood-letting on an unconscious young man, with an old woman attempting to revive him by holding an ammonia-soaked cloth under his nose. Three other panels "Sight", "Hearing" and "Touch" were discovered in the 1930s.

"Smell" is unique because a signature was revealed after it was cleaned reading either "RH" or "RHF" -- both of which were used by the Dutch master to sign his paintings. Because the other paintings in the series are unsigned, "Smell" is thought to be the oldest painting signed by Rembrandt, the paper reported.

"Smell" will be on display at The European Art Fair in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, opening Friday. Last year nearly 75,000 people visited the event, exhibiting offerings from 275 of the world's leading galleries representing 20 countries. The newly identified Rembrandt will not be for sale. It was bought by US-based philanthropist and art collector Thomas S. Kaplan for his Leiden Collection at a price estimated between three and four million euros, NRC reported. Kaplan now owns three of the four "senses" paintings. The fourth, "Sight", belongs to the Lakenhal Museum in Leiden. The whereabouts of "Taste" remains a mystery.

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'Lost' unfinished nude by Francis Bacon to be reunited at Christie's South Kensington

Two early paintings by Irish artist Tony O’Malley which, when turned over and joined together, reveal a ‘lost’ unfinished nude by Francis Bacon. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2016.

LONDON.- The Modern British & Irish Art sale at Christie’s South Kensington on 17 March will include two early paintings by Irish artist Tony O’Malley which, when turned over and joined together, reveal a ‘lost’ unfinished nude by Francis Bacon. Bacon started Figure when working in St Ives, Cornwall in the late 1950s, but when the artist cut short his visit following an argument with this partner he abandoned the work, among many others. The work was divided into two by O’Malley who went on to paint two scenes on the opposite sides: Currach, Clare Island and Evening Landscape Tehidy Hospital. For years these works were separated, residing in the collections of two different owners. Now these paintings, and the lost Bacon study, will be reunited and viewed together for the first time in almost 60 years, when the public pre-sale viewing opens on 12 March at Christie’s South Kensington. They will be offered in the Modern British & Irish Art auction on 17 March with an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

In September 1959, Bacon travelled to St Ives to work on a series of paintings for his exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in March 1960. Bacon’s stay in St Ives occurred during a significant stage of transition in the artist’s career, where he experimented with colour and technique, readdressing how he located the figure in space. Whilst working in St Ives, Bacon rented 3 Porthmeor Studios, from the sculptor William Redgrave and his wife Mary, known as ‘Boots’, in a row of studios previously occupied by tenants including Ben Nicholson and Terry Frost. Intending to stay for six months, Bacon’s visit was cut short after a turbulent argument with his then partner Ronnie Belton. When clearing the studio Boots gave away many of Bacon’s discarded works to friends who would re-use the materials. It has been reported that O’Malley was approached by a dealer who propositioned him to ‘complete’ the Bacon, which he refused to do and split the board in two, while others recount that the board was cut to suit O’Malley’s preference for working on smaller sized boards.

The two halves of Bacon’s Figure were first displayed together when an image of the joined paintings was shown at Tate St Ives’s 2007 exhibition Francis Bacon in St Ives. This March will be the first time that the two paintings are displayed together in public. Figure will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Francis Bacon, to be published in April 2016.

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Looted Mesopotamian temple figurines found in Slovenia refugee tent on the border with Croatia

LJUBLJANA (AFP).- Three ancient Mesopotamian sculptures, thought to have been excavated illegally in Syria or Iraq, have been found in a Slovenian refugee camp on the border with Croatia, police said on Wednesday. The National Museum in Ljubljana confirmed the alabaster objects were authentic Mesopotamian temple figurines and probably dated back to third millennium B.C. "Since the objects have no registration or inventory signs, we believe they were excavated illegally," museum archeologist Peter Turk told state radio Slovenija. "Their value on the black market might not be in the ten of thousands of euros but certainly several thousands of euros," he added. Last September, UNESCO warned that archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq were being looted "on an industrial scale" and the proceeds from the plunder were funding Islamic State extremists.

The statuettes were most likely left behind by a migrant in early November when thousands of people arrived daily from Croatia, police spokesman Miran Sadl told AFP. The extraordinary find only emerged now, after the National Museum had finished its evaluation. Almost half a million migrants heading for northern Europe have crossed Slovenia since October 2015 following Hungary's decision to seal its borders for refugees.

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Gang found guilty in $79 million jade, rhino horn theft plot from museums across Britain

A jade bowl and figurine taken from Durham's Oriental Museum were found hidden in waste ground.

LONDON (AFP).- Four leaders of a crime gang were convicted Monday of plotting to steal jade and rhino horn artefacts worth £57 million ($79 million, 73 million euros) from museums across Britain to export illegally to China. Ten more men have already been convicted of the same crime, including Chi Cheong Donald Wong -- a London-based intermediary who would find buyers for the stolen items and made frequent trips to Hong Kong. A jury in Birmingham in central England convicted the men of planning raids on auction houses and museums, including at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. None of the 18 jade exhibits stolen from the Cambridge museum in April 2012 have been recovered but a jade bowl and figurine taken from Durham's Oriental Museum were found hidden in waste ground. The men were all members of "Rathkeale Rovers", an organised crime gang within the Irish Traveller community. The European law enforcement agency Europol in 2011 warned about an Irish organised crime group involved in the trafficking of illegal rhino horn.

The police estimate that the loot netted from the thefts would have fetched £57 million in China. Six members of the gang were arrested in September 2013 at travellers' camps in south east England. There is high demand for rhino horns in China, where they are used in highly controversial preparations of traditional Chinese medicine. In recent years, prices of drinking cups made of sculpted rhinoceros horns also have soared in the Chinese art market.

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Romanian police seize stolen archaeological treasures taken from sites and destined for auction

File photo of the golden denarius minted by Coson. Photo: Wikipedia.org

BUCHAREST (AFP).- Romanian police have seized gold coins and a treasure trove of statues which are over 2,000 years old allegedly stolen from archaeological sites and destined for auction, prosecutors said Monday. Three golden coins minted under the Dacian King Koson, 1,050 ancient silver coins, as well as 102 metal objects and 12 vases and ceramic statuettes were seized last week in raids on an auction house and three people claiming to be collectors, they said. "At least some of these objects come from treasures stolen from protected archaeological sites," prosecutor Augustin Lazar, in charge of the investigation in Alba Iulia, central Romania, told AFP. He said some of the pieces are so rare that it difficult to put a value on them. Unless they are part of known collections which date back generally to the 19th century, "these objects cannot have been acquired legally, something of which their owners could not be ignorant," he said. "We are not surprised that thieves try to put such objects up for auction," trying to "launder" them, Lazar added.

Numerous precious coins, mostly coming from illegal archaeological digs, have been found recently thanks to "systematic surveillance of the websites of Romanian and foreign auction houses," a police source told AFP. Items seized last week will be examined by experts at Romania's national Historical Museum, who will decide on a case-by-case basis if they should be confiscated or returned to their owners, said Lazar. He said it was too early to say if or when items could be put up for auction. The Artmark auction house, targeted in the raids, said it had told police and the ministry of culture in advance of its plans organise sales of objects which could be part of the country's national heritage, but had not received a reply. "By offering the police our full support for a proper investigation, we hope to be able rapidly to resume our legal activities," Artmark said in a statement.

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