Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | July 2023 |

ART NEWS
New York prosecutors crack down on
art trafficking worth $165 million
New York has gained a notorious
reputation as a global hub for art
trafficking, with prosecutors seizing
hundreds of priceless artifacts looted
from around the world. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art and other major institutions
and collectors have been compelled to return
these works to more than a dozen countries in
Asia, Europe, and Africa. The extent of these
seizures and subsequent repatriations leaves
no doubt about New York’s involvement in the
illicit trade of antiquities, according to Christos
Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist and art
historian.
Tsirogiannis, along with David Gill from Kent
Law School in Britain, has been assisting the
Manhattan district attorney’s campaign to repatriate
stolen art to their countries of origin.
Since 2017, prosecutors have returned pieces
looted from around 20 countries between the
1970s and 1990s, including works from ancient
Greece, the Roman and Byzantine empires,
Iraq, China, India, and Southeast Asia.
Under the leadership of district attorney
Alvin Bragg, the pace of repatriations has
accelerated. Over the past two years, more
than 950 pieces worth $165 million have been
returned to countries such as Cambodia, Pakistan,
Egypt, Turkey, and Italy. Recently, Bragg
returned two 7th-century stone sculptures to
Beijing, valued at $3.5 million, which had
been illegally exported from China and were
loaned to the Met by collector Shelby White
until their seizure this year. White, a billionaire
philanthropist and Met trustee, had her home
searched by prosecutors but is not accused
of any wrongdoing.
Tsirogiannis and Gill believe that White’s
acquisitions, made with her late husband Leon
Levy, may have been unwise, especially after
the 1970 UNESCO Convention aimed at
preventing the trafficking of cultural property.
White had previously returned pieces to Italy
and Greece, suggesting she should have
had serious doubts about the origins of the
remaining artworks.
Other art dealers have also been forced
to return works. Collector Michael Steinhardt
handed back 180 antiquities worth $70 million,
while art dealer Subhash Kapoor was sen-
tenced to ten years in prison in India for his
involvement in art smuggling. In September,
Bragg returned 16 pieces to Egypt, including
five seized from the Met, as part of a joint
investigation with Paris authorities, which led
to charges against the former president of the
Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez.
In response to these issues, the Met has
announced its intention to examine the provenance
of hundreds of objects in its collection
and return them to their countries of origin as
necessary. The district attorney’s efforts and
the growing awareness about the importance
of provenance in the art world highlight the
need to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural
artifacts and restore stolen heritage to its
rightful owners.
- news@magzoid.com
www.magzoid.com July 2023
47