Egypt
The Guardian, UK (Mark Vlasic)
- New York Dealer Pleads Guilty To Smuggling
ArtInfo (Benjamin Sutton) With a slideshow of some of the arteacts. How did a Brooklyn man smuggle enough Egyptian artifacts into the U.S. to open a small museum? Mostly by lying on customs forms. On Wednesday the New York antiques dealer Mousa Khouli...
- International Smugglers Increasingly Target Egypt's Artifacts
Al Masry Al Youm (Mete Eriksen) The dismantlement of an international mummy and artifact smuggling ring by US authorities in July raised alarms about the status of stolen Egyptian artifacts in transnational black markets. The daily newspaper Metro-New...
- Alleged Egyptian Antiquities Smuggler Apprehended
Monsters and Critics A Lebanese antiquities dealer was arrested in Bulgaria after being charged with smuggling stolen ancient Egyptian artifacts, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said on Thursday. 'Ali Abu Taam was accused of smuggling...
- Restored Artifacts To Be Put In Egyptian Museum
Egypt State Information Service Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has decided to put recently restored stolen antiquities from the United States at the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr Zahi Hawwas said that...
- Book Release: Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, And The Antiquities Trade
http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=BRODIF06This is of general archaeological interest, and particularly relevant in the light of so many highly publicized incidents where artefacts are being repatriated, or are being claimed for repatriation:"Archaeological...
Egypt
Stamping out the illicit trade in cultural artifacts
The Guardian, UK (Mark Vlasic)
The allegations could have come straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Three art dealers and a collector have been accused of running an antiquities smuggling ring that illegally shipped Egyptian treasures, including Egyptian sarcophagi, funerary boats and limestone figures over 2,000 years old, to the United States. The relics arrived stateside in innocuous freight boxes, labeled "antiques" and "wooden panels," in order to escape scrutiny.
Declared "one of the largest and most-significant cases of antiquities smuggling in recent memory" by Egypt's minister of antiquities, the case provides a reminder that the "Arab Spring" may have facilitated trade of a treasure trove of stolen assets in the world's art and antiquities markets – and that increased diligence is needed to ensure that our world's cultural heritage is protected.
In the recent indictment, the US department of justice charged Mousa Khouli, Salem Alshdaifat and Ayman Ramadan, and collector Joseph A Lewis II, with conspiring to smuggle artifacts and conspiring to launder funds. The men are said to have collaborated in disguising and transferring ancient Egyptian artifacts, sidestepping international treaties and domestic customs laws, and abandoning moral restraint.
The case against Khouli and his co-accused draws attention to the global market for looted treasure.
- New York Dealer Pleads Guilty To Smuggling
ArtInfo (Benjamin Sutton) With a slideshow of some of the arteacts. How did a Brooklyn man smuggle enough Egyptian artifacts into the U.S. to open a small museum? Mostly by lying on customs forms. On Wednesday the New York antiques dealer Mousa Khouli...
- International Smugglers Increasingly Target Egypt's Artifacts
Al Masry Al Youm (Mete Eriksen) The dismantlement of an international mummy and artifact smuggling ring by US authorities in July raised alarms about the status of stolen Egyptian artifacts in transnational black markets. The daily newspaper Metro-New...
- Alleged Egyptian Antiquities Smuggler Apprehended
Monsters and Critics A Lebanese antiquities dealer was arrested in Bulgaria after being charged with smuggling stolen ancient Egyptian artifacts, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said on Thursday. 'Ali Abu Taam was accused of smuggling...
- Restored Artifacts To Be Put In Egyptian Museum
Egypt State Information Service Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has decided to put recently restored stolen antiquities from the United States at the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr Zahi Hawwas said that...
- Book Release: Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, And The Antiquities Trade
http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=BRODIF06This is of general archaeological interest, and particularly relevant in the light of so many highly publicized incidents where artefacts are being repatriated, or are being claimed for repatriation:"Archaeological...