New York museum says ancient coffin was looted, will go back to Egypt

Gilded Coffin Lid for the Priest Nedjemankh (detail) Late Ptolemaic Period (150–50 B.C.) Cartonnage, gold, silver, resin, glass, wood The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 2017 Benefit Fund; Lila Acheson Wallace Gift; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; Leona Sobel Education and The Camille M. Lownds Funds; and 2016 Benefit Fund, 2017 (2017.255b) Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

NEW YORK (AFP).- The Metropolitan Museum of Art will return an ancient gilded coffin to Egypt after New York prosecutors determined that it had been looted from that country, the museum said. The museum had purchased the prized coffin, dating from the first century BCE, in July 2017 from a Paris art dealer for a price of nearly four million dollars. But the Manhattan district attorney's office determined that the mummy-shaped golden coffin had been sold with fake documentation, including a forged 1971 Egyptian export license.

It was not clear what had sparked the district attorney's investigation. The statement Friday quoted Met CEO Daniel Weiss as apologizing to the Egyptian people and specifically to Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany. "After we learned that the Museum was a victim of fraud and unwittingly participated in the illegal trade of antiquities, we worked with the DA's office for its return to Egypt," Weiss said.

The museum said it would "consider all available remedies to recoup the purchase price of the coffin" and would commit itself "to identifying how justice can be served, and how we can help to deter future offenses against cultural property." The museum vowed to "review and revise its acquisitions process."

The elaborately decorated coffin, viewed by nearly a half-million visitors since it was made the centerpiece of a major exhibition in July, is sheathed in gold, which the ancient Egyptians associated with the gods. It is inscribed with the name of Nedjemankh, a high-ranking priest of the ram-headed god Heryshef of Herakleopolis. The Met took the coffin off view this week to deliver it to the district attorney's office for its eventual return to Egypt.

© Agence France-Presse
http://artdaily.com/news/111395/New-York-museum-says-ancient-coffin-was-looted--will-go-back-to-Egypt#.XHBG4OhKiUk

'Fake' still life in US museum confirmed as real Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890), Still Life with Fruit and Chestnuts, 1886. Oil on canvas, 10 5/8 x 14 in. (27 x 35.6 cm) Gift of Bruno and Sadie Adriani 1960.41 Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

THE HAGUE (AFP).- Art experts have confirmed that a small still-life at a US museum once dismissed as a fake is in fact by Vincent van Gogh, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said Wednesday. The painting, "Still Life with Fruit and Chestnuts", was donated by a couple to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco in 1960 and suspected to be by the Dutch master.

Several experts had previously said that the painting dated to 1886 was not a real Van Gogh, and it was not included in previous official catalogues of works by the painter, who committed suicide in 1890. "It is true that at the end of last year, experts from the Van Gogh Museum attributed a painting from the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco as a Vincent van Gogh painting," press officer Milou Bollen told AFP. "There was always a question whether the painting was or was not made by Van Gogh."

In a further discovery, the experts found that there was a portrait of a woman hidden underneath the still life, the Van Gogh museum said. Van Gogh often reused his canvases as he found himself working in poverty, managing to sell only a few of his paintings during his troubled life.

The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco was not immediately available for comment. It already lists the painting as being by Van Gogh on its website.

Van Gogh is better known for his vibrant renderings of sunflowers but he also painted a series of lesser, often darker still lifes including the one now officially attributed to him. "Still Life with Fruit and Chestnuts" is believed to have been painted in Paris in the autumn of 1886, the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported.

It was at one point owned by the mother of French painter Emile Bernard, who was friends with Van Gogh. The Van Gogh Museum is asked to examine 200 works a year to see if they are really by the artist, but since 1988 it has only added 14 to the official oeuvre, Volkskrant said.

© Agence France-Presse

http://artdaily.com/news/111170/-Fake--still-life-in-US-museum-confirmed-as-real-Van-Gogh#.XF3T8FxKiUk

'Indiana Jones of art' finds stolen Spanish carvings in English garden

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand (L) and an assistant remove two 7th century limestone Visigoth reliefs from a van in north London on January 20, 2019, the reliefs, depicting evangelists, where both stolen from the Maria del Lara Church in Spain. Two priceless stone reliefs stolen from a mysterious ancient Spanish church in 2004 were handed back after they were traced to an English garden where they were displayed as ornaments. Dubbed the "Indiana Jones of the art world" because of his exploits, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand said he handed the carvings back to the Spanish embassy at a private ceremony in London. NIKLAS HALLE'N / AFP. by Jan Hennop

THE HAGUE (AFP).- A Dutch art detective has returned two priceless stone reliefs stolen from an ancient Spanish church after tracing them to an English nobleman's garden where they were displayed as ornaments. Arthur Brand, dubbed the "Indiana Jones of the art world", said he handed over the centuries-old carvings to the Spanish embassy in London at a private ceremony on Monday.

It was the culmination of a long search for the artworks, which were snatched in 2004 from the Santa Maria de Lara church in northern Spain, believed to be at least 1,000 years old. They turned up in the garden of an aristocratic British family who had unwittingly bought them, and it was there that Brand found them covered in mud and leaves.

"These artworks are priceless. To find them in a garden after searching for eight years is just incredible," the art sleuth told AFP. "You can imagine how horrified they were to learn that their garden ornaments were in fact priceless stolen Spanish religious art." The private investigator showed AFP the stone carvings -- one of which depicts John the Evangelist, author of one of the Gospels -- hours before they were handed back.

The reliefs, said to weigh 50 kilos (110 pounds) each, were then handed to representatives of Spain's Guardia Civil police force, who are collaborating in the case, and two museum curators from the northern city of Burgos. The Spanish embassy in London declined to comment.

'World heritage' The hunt for the artworks could come straight from a detective novel. The church from which they were stolen is believed to date from the era of the Visigoths, with experts dating it between the seventh and eleventh centuries. But in a huge blow the reliefs were snatched by professional art thieves in 2004, Brand said.

In 2010 the intrepid sleuth first received word from an unnamed British informant that "something strange" had popped up in London, which eventually pointed him to a shadowy man Brand referred to as 'Mr X'. "It turns out 'Mr X' saw a French dealer arriving with the reliefs by truck in London. They were put on offer as garden ornaments -- but Mr X recognised them as possible Visigoth religious artworks," Brand said. "The guys who stole these wanted to sell it for a couple of millions or whatever, but they have soon find out that you can not sell these, so to make at least a little bit of money, they sold them as garden ornaments," he said, adding that they were probably sold for around 50,000 pounds each.

Brand then tracked down the French dealer, who pointed them towards an unnamed British aristocratic family living north of London. "It ended up in the garden of an English nobleman, who did not know that it was world heritage, where they would stay like 15 years," he said. The owners were so shocked when told the truth that "they wanted to throw the artworks into a river and let them disappear forever. Fortunately we managed to convinced them not to," said Brand.

It was yet another success for Brand, who was in the headlines last year for returning a stolen 1,600-year-old mosaic to Cyprus that was found in the possession of a similarly unwitting British family. He won world fame in 2015 after finding "Hitler's Horses", two bronze statues made by Nazi sculptor Joseph Thorak.

'Worthy of Dan Brown' The recovery of the artworks could also play an important role in revealing more about the mysterious Santa Maria de Lara church near Burgos. The church was effectively lost for centuries before being rediscovered in 1921 by a local priest and declared a national monument in 1929.

Inside, the church has Christian, but also pagan, Roman symbols and Islamic influences -- "worthy of a Dan Brown novel," Brand quipped. The stone reliefs "are of huge value," said Rene Payo, art history professor at the University of Burgos. "They are important because not many exist today. There are very little... quantities of Visigoth figurative sculptures," he told AFP. The Visigoths settled in Spain between the fifth and eighth century after driving out the Romans, but were themselves overthrown by the Moors in 711.

The looted artworks could also be "essential" evidence in a debate raging among scholars about the exact age of the church, said Oxford University researcher David Addison. Addison said some believed it was a 7th century building while others dated it to the 10th or 11th centuries. Brand's return of the artifacts "would be a great service in this regard," Addison said.

© Agence France-Presse http://artdaily.com/news/110742/-Indiana-Jones-of-art--finds-stolen-Spanish-carvings-in-English-garden#.XFzHulxKiUk