Looted Antiquities

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has seized a Persian limestone relief fragment from the stand of a dealer at TEFAF New York amid accusations it had been stolen.

Five antiquities dealers were arrested by Israeli police in Jerusalem last week in connection with items that were illegally imported into the US by the arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby.

An important glazed Islamic calligraphic tile stolen in Uzbekistan is to be returned to the country after it was discovered for sale in a London gallery.

A large high street chain in the US has been fined $3m in connection with the purchase and importing of a large number of ancient Iraqi artefacts.

Egypt’s former antiquities minister Mamdouh al-Damaty has called for a change of policy relating to Egyptian artefacts traded abroad.

The UK government has passed the third reading of the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill, opposing amendments called for by the art and antiques trade.

A suspected art smuggling ring has been busted after Europol and police across 18 countries helped seize 3561 works of art and cultural goods.

Leading trade bodies are voicing concerns that a revised EU consultation into the illicit trafficking of antiquities could lead to a “burdensome” new import licence system.

The Antiquities Dealers’ Association says the wording of the Cultural Property bill currently passing through Parliament ‘risks serious damage’ to the market and exposes members of the trade to an “unfair” risk of prosecution.

Politicians and trade bodies have raised further concerns over how a new Cultural Property Bill could impact the art market.

The UK Government’s cultural property bill currently going through parliament needs “vital changes” to be workable and to safeguard “legitimate art market interests”, says the Antiquities Dealers’ Association (ADA).

The EU’s planned crackdown on terrorism funding and the way it is investigating possible legislation is a ‘big concern to the trade’.

Roman and Etruscan antiquities believed to have been obtained from illicit excavations were found by police in 45 crates belonging to Robin Symes, a high-profile British art dealer who served seven months in Pentonville prison in 2005.

A late 18th century bust of the Goddess Diana which was looted from the Royal Lazienki Palace in Warsaw by the Nazis has been returned to Poland after emerging at auction in Vienna.

It was included in one of the Ashmolean Museum’s greatest bequests but this magnificent salt cellar was subsequently discovered to be Nazi loot. Recently restituted, it soared to £850,000 at auction.