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October 16, 2024

Santa Rosa di Viterbo or Saint Margaret of Cortona: It's all in a Saint's name.

 

In December 2018 Alejandro Corral, president of the Realejo neighbourhood association alerted the Environmental Prosecutor's Office of Madrid of a new attempt to sell stolen religious works of art from the church of convent Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles in the Realejo neighborhood of Granada.  In making his denouncement, Corral told the authorities that a17th century religious statue depicting Santa Rosa di Viterbo, by Baroque sculptor José de Mora, had been spotted in circulation on the religious art market, intentionally or unintentionally, labelled as Saint Margaret of Cortona in a catalogue titled "Seven Centuries of Spanish Art".  


This notice, in turn, triggered an investigation by Spain's Ministry of Culture and the Heritage Brigade of the Policía Nacional, code named Operación Granada.   Shortly thereafter, a social media outcry lead to researchers publicly naming the seller as Madrid-based art dealer Nicolás Cortés, who had included the statue in his gallery's Maastricht and New York sales offerings at TEFAF for €350,000.  

During the Spanish investigation, the National Police seized the 17th-century religious statue while still in the possession of Cortés, which effectively barred its sale onward, giving investigators time to clarify the statue's ownership and exportation details.

Interviewed by El Pais shortly after the news broke, dealer Nicolás Cortés told news services that he had bought the sculpture at the end of 2017 from an antique dealer for €100,000, stating he was told it came from a private collector.  These details were later determined to contain discrepancies.   Cortés is also quoted as saying I wouldn’t think of going to a convent to buy because it’s illegal,”  and turned over the purchase invoice and the relevant export permit to the Spanish authorities conducting their investigation. 

Sister Josefa, the mother superior of the convent Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles, initially claimed that the statue listed for sale by Cortés was different from the one in her order's church, citing the positioning of the left hand.  She also insisted that the convent still possessed its statue,  though admittedly, she initially declined to reveal its location. "There was never an image with that title in the convent," she told El País, suggesting the one for sale with the Madrid dealer as Saint Margaret of Cortona had simply been mistaken for the statue of Santa Rosa di Viterbo. 

Despite this, it was quickly determined that the statue in the religious order's possession was a crudely made modern fake, as can be seen in the image below.

Professor of history at the University of Granada, Lázaro Gila, who has also documented all the convents of Granada, told El País that he had no doubt that the figure for sale with Cortés' gallery was the Santa Rosa di Viterbo stolen from the church, adding that the artist de Mora did not produce the same sculpture twice.

Likewise, conservation experts were also convinced that the object for sale by the gallery was the stolen sculpture, given that the folds and design details of the mantle are quite specific and could not have been altered without risk of damage to the original polychromy.  The conservators also noted that the positioning of the hands could have been easily altered and that the Cortés’s gallery itself confirmed that the statue's left hand had been readjusted.

In December 2019, Spanish investigators determined that Alagón antique dealer Santos Boy Jimenez Borja had taken the 1.5 meters high, 17th century statue depicting Santa Rosa di Viterbo, which had been displayed above the church's altar, shortly after the convent's closure and around the same time other religious art objects from the closed convent began to appear on the Spanish market.  The object was purportedly removed, according to the religious order, on the pretext of obtaining an estimate for restoring it, only to have a replacement returned in its stead, commissioned to vaguely represent the polychrome saint. 

Jimenez Borja then sold the statuette to Cortés for an agreed value of 90,000 euros in June 2018,  not in 2017 and not for the 100,000 euros as stated by the Madrid art dealer.  Equally unusual, to conclude thir sales transaction Jimenez Borja is purported to have received "45,000 euros through a transfer and a BMW X5 valued at the same price, although there were doubts about whether it was possible to export the piece given its religious origin."  So not exactly your routine sales transaction. 

This week, the Court of Granada sentenced Jimenez Borja to four years in prison and handed him a fine of 3,650 euros for misappropriation of the eighteenth-century sculpture.   Despite his conviction, he still insists on his innocence, claiming he purchased the statuette directly from the religious order and reminding the Spanish news that he is not a restorer which makes the statements about removing the statue for a conservation estimate somewhat clouded. 

One we do know, is that cases like this one highlight the importance of precise record keeping and how a slight name change can allow stolen material to circulate.  A Spanish export license was issued for this religious object despite the fact that the statue had been clearly listed in the registry of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage, in charge of the protection and research on the historical heritage of Andalusia.   

Unfortunately, there the religious statuette is listed under the name Santa Rosa de Viterbo, not the name given on the export request, and registered as being in Sevilla, in the Municipality of Estepa at the Monasterio de Santa Clara de Jesús / Convento de Santa Clara.  Luckily the eyes of citizen activists played an important part in this artworks eventual recovery. 

Cocaine, Van Goghs and a narco kingpin's Imperial life in Dubai

For several years ARCA has followed the escapades of Raffaele Imperiale, one of Italy's most important (and violent) drug dealers, who admitted to purchasing two Van Gogh paintings stolen from the Van Gogh Museum.  This month, a new book, aptly titled Il Narcos, by Daniela De Crescenzo, a journalist for Il Mattino from 1981 to 2016 and part of the scientific committee of the magazine Narcomafie and Tommaso Montanino, an inspector with the Guardia di Finanza serving at the GICO in Naples explore in great detail, the life on the run of this once-fugitive Camorra affiliated boss.                                                                                                          In Il Narcos, the writers deliver an in-depth and riveting account of the rise and fall of Raffaele Imperiale, one of Italy’s most notorious drug traffickers. This true crime story takes readers from the rough streets of Castellammare di Stabia, where Imperiale was born, through a Naples dominated by feuding clans of the Camorra, and on to the glitzy excess of Dubai, where the drug kingpin evaded capture for years.

De Crescenzo skillfully traces Imperiale's path from his early years in organised crime to his eventual role as an international drug lord who dominated cocaine trafficking between Europe and South America for thirty years. And who, in order to obtain a reduction in his Italian sentence, handed over two Van Gogh paintings to the State in 2016 as well as the island of Taiwan, off the coast of Dubai, in 2023. 

Imperiale’s story is both a portrait of ambition and a chilling reflection of the global reach of the criminal underworld and this book’s strengths lies in its meticulous research.  Drawing on legal documents, police reports, and interviews the writers  construct a narrative that is comprehensive, yet still accessible to readers, vividly portraying not just Imperiale himself, but the entire ecosystem of crime and corruption that allowed him to thrive. 

The book also introduces readers to the intricate ties between Italian transnational organised crime groups, drug cartels, and political complicity, while never losing sight of the brutality and violence that Imperiale's operations left in their wake.  Throughout the book, the authors explore not only Imperiale's rise to power but also the societal conditions that enabled his success, providing insight into how economic disparity and the lawlessness of certain regions in Italy actively fuel the rise of figures like Raffaele, leaving us with an unsettling truth.  That sometimes crime does pay, if only for a time. And when it crumbles, it does so with devastating consequences—for the criminals, their families, and the societies that allowed them to flourish. 

Lastly, the book also covers the little talked about negotiations with agencies in the United States, citing that for six years, the FBI and the DEA negotiated conditions of collaboration, where, in exchange for help in framing the other leaders of the global drug cartel, the US would have guaranteed Imperiale a plea bargain for a lenient sentence for money laundering and, after a short period of detention, a new life in the United States, with his family and loved ones. 

This plan however was stalled when prosecutor of Naples Giovanni Melillo (now head of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate), removed the 'Imperial meatball' from the plate of the Americans.  All said, Il Narcos is more than just a biography of a single drug lord and the empires he built on violence and deception.  It is a stark meditation on the human cost of greed, corruption, and power.

By:  Lynda Albertson

October 15, 2024

Urban Tombaroli and Two Clandestine Excavations: Near the Villa at Oplontis and in Central Naples


The Carabinieri have uncovered a clandestine excavation in Torre Annunziata, believed to be aimed at looting artefacts from the renowned Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Oplontis, an ancient luxurious Roman seaside villa located a short three kilometers away from the more famous archaeological site of Pompeii. The discovery was made during a coordinated operation led by the Carabinieri’s investigative unit from Torre Annunziata, with assistance from agents specialising in cultural heritage crimes. 

Map from Oplontis: Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy. Volume 1.
The Ancient Setting and Modern Rediscovery
by John R. Clarke and Nayla K. Muntasser

Acting on a tip-off, the Carabinieri officers raided a cellar on Corso Garibaldi, number 106, just one minute's walk from the historic villa.  There the investigators  found three partially collapsed but still accessible tunnels, all leading in the direction of the Villa of Poppea, with its striking wall paintings  The officers also found a striking number of tools used for the illicit excavation, as seen in the video below.  These included aerators, shoring materials used in the tunnels' development, and containers already filled with volcanic lapilli removed during the advancement of the digging operation.

The owner of the cellar, a 53-year-old local carpenter with no prior criminal record, has been charged with conducting illicit works under Article 169 of Italy’s cultural heritage code. 

Investigators believe the tunnels were dug with the intent of reaching and stealing artefacts from the archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its exceptionally preserved frescoes and structures dating back to ancient Rome.

The Villa of Poppea is a significant part of the Oplontis site and has long been a target for tomb raiders due to its rich archaeological significance. Authorities are continuing their investigation, focusing on whether the carpenter was working alone or, given the abitious nature of materials found, as part of a larger network of artefact thieves.

Earlier this month, a similarly ambitious illicit excavation was uncovered in the heart of Naples.  There officers discovered the remains of an 11th century medieval church eight meters below street level, 2 km away from Naples central train station near Piazza Bovio. 

The raider in this instance is a local entrepreneur, digging directly under an existing palazzo.  Recovered at the scene, officers seized some 10,000 archaeological fragments from the Roman and medieval eras, believed to be from the suburban sector of the ancient Magna Graecia city of Neapolis, as well as 453 intact archaeological finds from the Roman era , including: red-figure craters, amphorae, terracotta lamps and pipes, as well as Roman and medieval coins.

The previously undiscovered church is said to be a rare example of medieval art of the 11th century, whose decoration are similar t the nearby Sacello di Sant'Aspreno. 

Both incidences highlight the significant challenges posed by urban illicit excavations for both law enforcement and cultural heritage protection.  These unauthorised digs, often conducted covertly beneath residential or commercial properties, not only pose safety hazards due to unstable tunnels and potential structural damage, but they also risk irreparable harm to the archaeological context of the site. 

In cities with rich histories like Cairo, Rome or Naples, contemporary city expansion has often built over ancient treasures, making it difficult to monitor such hidden operations.   Looters seeking valuable artefacts frequently destroy layers of history, removing items from their context and severing crucial links to the past.  This not only deprives the public of valuable cultural knowledge but also fuels the black market for antiquities, undermining legitimate efforts to preserve and study historical sites. 

The challenge for authorities is compounded by the difficulty of detecting these operations in densely populated areas, where excavations can go undetected for years, beneath seemingly ordinary locations.

October 14, 2024

Stolen Funerary Artefact Returns to Ad Decimum Catacombs

Yesterday, a homecoming took place in Grottaferrata, Italy, marking the final passage in the return of an important marble funerary artefact. This ancient epigraphic fragment offers its readers a glimpse into the burial practices and religious life of Italy's early Christian communities and was stolen in 1989 from the Ad Decimum Catacombs.

Nestled within the Roman countryside, the Ad Decimum Catacombs were discovered by chance in 1905, when the land above the subterranean gallery, collapsed under a plough working on a vineyard.  The site holds some 1000 early Christian burials dating from the 2nd to the 5th century CE.  Most are simple recesses, while others speak more vividly to the people whose remains where placed here, along the 10th Roman mile marker on the Via Latina.  

While humidity and time have worn off many of the painted images inside the catacombs, the site itself still remains extremely thought provoking, with unique reminders of the lives of those resting there.  Wandering inside visitors can still make out some of the textual messages left behind by loved ones, including one from Ilaro to his brother, which clearly reads:“To my dearest brother Marciano. Ilaro made peace”, making scholars wonder just what kind of feud the brothers were involved in when Marciano was laid to rest so many centuries ago.

The returning fragment celebrated over the weekend is etched in Greek by a grieving husband for his 22-year-old wife, telling us its own poignant story, and reminding visitors of the human emotions tied to these long-gone lives.

Her epitaph, which contains one of the earliest written references to Christ, reads:  

“Be of good cheer Musena Irene, your soul is immortal with Christ.” 

Identified by the Operational Department - Archaeology Section of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, the fragment was found in the collection of the Museum Catharijneconvent, in the former St. Catharine convent in Utrecht.  It had been donated to the Dutch museum of religious art by one of the museum's patrons.  

Thankfully, and with the help of excellent Italian-Dutch cooperation between all interested parties, Musena Irene's departing message from her husband is now back where it belongs.  Transferred from the Dutch to the Italian authorities in November 2023, the fragment initially toured with dozens of other recovered artefacts in an exhibition celebrating the return of objects from abroad curated by the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Command at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Farnesina in the city of Rome. 

This week, the final leg of its journey was completed with a celebratory ceremony back at the catacombs, attended by key figures from Italy and the Netherlands, including Mons. Pasquale Iacobone, President of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, H.E. Annemieke Ruigrok, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Holy See, Colonel Paolo Befera, Commander of the Carabinieri Operations Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Lisette Voss, Senior Public Prosecutor, Fons van Gessel, Policy Advisor for Public Order and Safety, Sergeant Peter Veltman, National Police of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Warrent Officer Major Monica Satta, Carabinieri TPC, and Prof. Mirko Di Bernardo, the Mayor of Grottaferrata. 


The return event included brief speeches by several of the authorities present, as well as the final unveiling of the recovered inscription, (restored for the occasion) alongside a visit to the Ad Decimum catacombs.  This allowed attendees to witness firsthand why its important that funerary remains to go back to their intended sites (when security is sufficient) as they serve as a reminder of the enduring connections between history, heritage, and the places that preserve them.

September 1, 2024

Phoenix Ancient Art: A Summer of Legal Entanglements and Tax Showdowns


ARCA summers are pretty busy as each year.  Since 2009, the Association has hosted its multi-course Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural heritage which often means posting new developments in the art and antiquities crime sphere slow while we turn our attention towards trainees.  Now that the 13th edition of this annual PG Cert has concluded, we can take time to reflect on some of the summer's more interesting art and antiquities stories, two which involve the ancient art gallery, Phoenix Ancient Art.

More pieces, More Accusations

Back on the 15th of May, Gotham City, a French-speaking Swiss news website that focuses on white-collar crime reported that Ali Aboutaam, the Geneva-based ancient art dealer was again in hot water with the public prosecutor's office.  Despite his previous conviction in January 2023, where he received an 18-month suspended prison sentence,  Ali Aboutaam is again the focus of a new Swiss investigation.

According to the Geneva public prosecutor's office, Ali is alleged to have possessed two suspect alabaster (brucite) statues, representing a man and a woman, while, according to Gotham's reporting, he “knew that these cultural properties had been illicitly acquired during illegal excavations in Yemen”.  Assessed by art historians, at least one of the small statues is believed to come from an area located in the southern Yemeni plateau known for the immense Himyarite Kingdom .  The area is home to a large necropolis, Shuka, which dates to the 1st-3rd centuries CE and has been the focus of looting in varying periods.

Dat-Hamin Stele
This is not the first time that Phoenix Ancient Art has handled suspect South Arabian artefacts from this war-torn country in the MENA Region.  In 2002, its New York affiliate consigned a third-century CE alabaster stele depicting the fertility goddess Dat-Hamin for auction at Sotheby’s New York.  In that instance, the gallery's owners, brothers Ali and Hicham Aboutaam, had told the auction house that the piece came from a private English collection.

In their research to prepare for their upcoming auction, Sotheby's staff discovered that the stele had been photographed and documented as a part of the Aden Museum's collection in Yemen.  The artefact had been looted in July 1994 during what is referred to as the Summer War, a civil war fought between the two Yemeni forces of the pro-union northern and the socialist separatist southern Yemeni states and their various supporters.  Relinquished by the dealers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ultimately seized the stele in September 2003, and the stela was officially signed over to the Yemeni ambassador in December 2004.

Following that civil war, Yemen implemented wider legal protections for its cultural heritage, although instability resulting from the present-day civil war continues to make enforcement difficult.  Law Number 21 of 1994 on Antiquities, as amended by Law Number 8 of 1997, is the primary law governing ancient sites and objects in the country.  

This law defines Yemen's “archaeological” materials; vests their ownership in the State, and controls their protection, conservation, restoration, and study.  It addresses aspects of ownership, permissions and obligations for archaeological work, introduces penalties for the illegal trade, and sets duties and guidelines on how to deal with discovered and excavated objects.  

As such, it will be interesting to evaluate what documents Phoenix possesses in support of their circulation of these two objects in Switzerland, which are presently of interest to that country's public prosecutor. 

Moving on to Taxes...

On 18 July 2024 Switzerland's Bundesgericht, the country's Federal Supreme Court in Lucerne issued several ruling impacting Ali Aboutaam.  Judgments 9C_107, 9C_184, 9C_187 and 203/2023 of 18 July 2024, issued by Federal Judges Thomas Stadelmann as the Presiding Judge, along with Judges Margit Moser-Szeless and Michael Beusch, rejected a series of complex appeals, made through the art dealer's attorneys, concerning outstanding tax assessments in relation to the importation of a group of antiquities, some housed outside the gallery and outside the Ports Francs et Entrepôts de Genève. 

In rejecting Aboutaam's appeals, the higher court's final rulings reaffirms that the Swiss-based brother has to pay approximately 3.5 million Swiss francs ($4,125,444.82) in outstanding value-added tax (VAT), as assessed by the Bundesamt für Zoll und Grenzsicherheit (Federal Customs Administration) and largely affirmed by the Federal Administrative Court.  Ali was also ordered to pay late interest payments totalling approximately 900,000 Swiss francs (another $1,060,995.36).

In November 2021, Aboutaam had originally handed a SFr 1.6m fine via Swiss customs, including the costs of the proceedings.  The tax authorities came after the antiquities dealer in that instance after Phoenix Ancient Art imported 37 million Swiss francs worth of antiquities into Switzerland between 2010 and 2017, but without paying the applicable VAT. 

The high court's judges based July's decions on various elements confirmed within the Aboutaam's case files.  First, they noted that some of the artefacts had been stored and displayed within Ali Aboutaam's private home for an average period of between the end of 2012 and 28 February 2017, the date that his home was searched pursuant to two search and seizure orders, one issued by the Geneva Prosecutor and one issued by the Federal Customs Administration of the Swiss Confederation.  That search occurred in relation to a Swiss investigation into the movements of antiquities of suspicious provenance, or chain of title, or for being imported and exported potentially in violation of Swiss law governing cultural property.  

In issuing their taxation decisions, the Swiss high court recalled "that according to art. 30 para. 1 of the Federal Ordinance of 1 November 2006 on customs (OD; RS 631.01; cf.nature. 9 al. 1 and 2 LD), goods for temporary admission into the customs territory are admitted duty-free if they are the property of a person having his registered office or domicile outside the customs territory and if they are used by such a person (let. a), if they can be identified with certainty (let. b), if the admission lasts for a maximum of two years (let. c) and if they are re-exported in the same state, the use is not deemed to be a change (let. d). The procedure for temporary admission is provided for in Articles 162 to 164 OD." 

In rejecting Aboutaams tax-related appeals, the ruling judges and the court affirmed that the Swiss-based dealer had misused the relocation procedure, which allows goods intended for resale abroad to be exempt from import tax, by instead keeping some of these items for personal use.


Dib is the business partner of Hamburg-based dealer of Egyptian art Serop Simonian who was later arrested in Hamburg by German police on suspicion of art trafficking in August 2020 and released after only five weeks behind bars.  Subject to a European Arrest Warrant, Dib was then taken into custody by French authorities on 22 March 2022.   Likewise his business partner Serop, having surrendered in Germany, was extradited to France, where he too has been indicted on 15 September 2023 on charges of fraud and organised gang money laundering as well as for criminal association. 

Fairs, Retirement, Coins, and Wine

Despite these woes, over the summer Phoenix Ancient Art participated in the UK's annual Treasure House fair from 27 June 2024 through 2 July 2024.  When interviewed, Hicham Aboutaam, says that his brother retired two years ago from Phoenix Anicent Art S.A., “to focus on the establishment of a foundation”.  Michael Hedqvist, is now listed as MD/Chief Operating Officer (directeur) of the Swiss gallery.  Ali's own website, aliaboutaam.com, now has a page which states that the Geneva dealer is "Currently developing a collection of ancient Greek and Roman coins and rare wines. Reach out if that sounds interesting to you."   

From the 13,408 likes on the Instagram post at the top of this blog post, it doesn't seem like his social followers are overly perturbed by his legal entanglements. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

August 11, 2024

Tinker, Tailor, Carefully Curated Art Dealer Spy



The Perfect Cover: A Life in Slovenia

In a tale that feels straight out of a Cold War spy novel, Slovenia, a tranquil nation nestled in Central Europe, found itself at the center of an espionage drama involving two Russian sleeper agents: Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Valerievna Dultseva. 

For years, Dultsev and Valerievna Dultseva lived what seemed like a perfectly normal life in Slovenia. They presented themselves as a financially secure married couple who had emigrated to Europe because of rising crime levels in South America.  They even enrolled their young Spanish-speaking children, who had no idea they were Russian, into a private English-speaking international school in Ljubljana. 

But behind the facade, of a successful entrepreneur and an online art gallery owner, lay a dark secret: they were actually Russian sleeper agents, complete with fake passports with carefully curated backstories.

To blend seamlessly into the community, Dultsev, portrayed himself as an information technology executive coming from Argentina named Ludwig Gisch.  Once in Europe, he opened a company in Slovenia named DSM&IT in September 2017, which he registered in his and Valerevna's names.  This firm purportedly sold security software.  

After the formation of their first business enterprise, Valerievna Dultseva, posing as Maria Rosa Mayer Muños, and going by the name Maria Mayer, opened a second front business.  Her business claimed to be a "virtual" gallery, named Art Gallery 5'14.  In describing her pseudo gallery "Maria" claimed to "work with 90 artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, graphic designers) from all over the world" and to represent them at art fairs and exhibitions that she organised.  Both of these cover businesses eventually found physical spaces in an office building on Parmovo Street behind the Bežigrad District of Ljubljana. 

Valerievna Dultseva, likewise maintained a sockpuppet account on LinkedIn where she listed what are likely to be false academic qualifications from Sotheby's Institute of Art and the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia - U.N.E.D. in Spain. 

Living alongside their assumed identities and businesses, Dultsev and Valerievna Dultseva were the kind of neighbours who didn't raise eyebrows in the peaceful Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. To the outside world, they were the epitome of an ordinary married couple living an ordinary life.  But beneath this veneer of normalcy, Artem and Anna were far from ordinary. 

That is, until their activities eventually caught the attention of counterintelligence agencies.  The couple were quietly arrested in December 2022 by the Slovenian Security and Intelligence Agency, reportedly following a tip given to them by “a foreign intelligence agency”.   

When their Ljubljana home was searched, Slovenian authorities found “an enormous amount of cash” and evidence that demonstrated that the pair operated under the direction of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.  As Russia's external intelligence agency, the SVR focuses mainly on civilian affairs but also serves to recruit, train, and dispatch spies, some of whom pose as ordinary citizens in Western countries. 

Typically planted in foreign countries, often for years at a stretch, and with the directives to integrate themselves into society, agents like Dultsev and Valerievna Dultseva would have been tasked with covert operations, making the couple's choice of countries strategic.  By basing themselves in a Schengen zone country, they had the freedom to travel throughout Europe unquestioned.

News of the couple's s spying activity first made headlines on 31 July 2024 as each of them pleaded guilty in Slovenian court to charges of espionage and using fake documents to register their firms.  Sentenced to one year and seven months in prison, followed by deportation, and a ban on reentering Slovenia for five years.  More interesting still, their guilty pleas and reuninfication with their children, who had been placed in foster care, were coordinated as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West, since the 1991 collapse of the USSR. 

During this exchange, which involved negotiations at the highest levels of nine governments, a total of 16 political prisoners were swapped with eight Russian individuals jailed in the West.  Individuals who included the spy family, as well as swindlers, criminals, and a murderer serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 Berlin murder of a Georgian man who had fought with Chechen separatists. 

On August 1, 2024 after nearly 20 months in custody, Dultsev and Valerievna Dultseva were photographed, reunited with their children, on the tarmac of Vnukovo airport in Moscow, with the family being greeted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  


The Art Market as a Canvas for Espionage

As the world continues to grapple with geopolitical tensions, cases like this one illustrate the ongoing use of spycraft in the 21st century.  The exposure of sleeper agents like Artem and Anna has significant implications and this incident highlights the importance of vigilance in the face of international espionage.  It also is an interesting reminder of the lengths (and time) intelligence agencies will go to achieve their objectives. 

The uncloaking of these two spies should also serve as a wake-up call to one of the more unique ways businesses operating within the art market might be manipulated in disreputable ways, and in this case by countries themselves.  

The art world, often perceived as a realm of beauty and high culture, can be a surprisingly fertile ground for clandestine operations of all types and in this instance, its unique characteristics made it an attractive cover for intelligence activities, especially given that the art market provides opportunities for:

Cash Transactions: While the art market is increasingly digitised, cash transactions still predominate in certain segments. This can be exploited for illicit financial activities.

Discreet Communication: Art can be used as a medium for covert communication. Hidden messages or codes can be embedded within paintings, sculptures, or other art forms.

Cover for Travel: Art dealers, collectors, and auction house representatives often travel extensively. This provides a legitimate cover for intelligence officers to move and meet freely across borders.

Money Laundering: Art can be used to launder illicit funds. Overvaluing or undervaluing artworks can help to disguise the origin of money.

Smuggling: Art shipments can be used to conceal contraband, such as classified documents.

Intelligence Gathering: Art events, exhibitions, and auctions can be used as platforms for gathering intelligence. Art dealers and collectors often interact with high-net-worth individuals who may possess valuable information.

Recruitment: The art world can be a fertile ground for recruiting agents. Offering employment in art-related positions can provide further cover for recruited intelligence operatives.

Dead Drops: Art galleries or auction houses can be used as dead drops for exchanging classified information.

Under the guise of running a successful gallery, the art world’s natural focus on discretion and privacy allowed Russian spy Anna Valerievna Dultseva to seamlessly blend into Slovenia society.  All the while her carefully constructed public persona shielded her true purpose, and afforded her the freedom to maneuver undetected within the intricate web of international intrigue.

August 1, 2024

Thursday, August 01, 2024 - No comments

Michel Van Rijn: The death of a Smuggler and Informant

Michel Van Rijn was born in Paris in 1950 and was a name that resonated through the corridors of the art world for all the wrong reasons.  His father, a Dutch dentist, owned a large collection of primitive art.  

Early in Michel's career, he veered away from the legitimate aspects of the business and into the shadowy world of illicit trade and forgery, and claimed to have made his first million in his 20s craftily smuggling icons out of Soviet Russia.  Over time, his life would become marked by a series of high-profile controversies, legal battles, and enigmatic actions that labelled him as both notorious and useful.

His career in art smuggling spanned several decades, during which he established himself as a formidable player in the art world.  His operations were diverse and far-reaching, spanning the global art market and involving the sale of everything from ancient artefacts, to religious, and contemporary works of art.  

As a dealer, Michel was willing to bend the rules, and was adept at exploiting the opaque nature of the art market in which he worked. As such, he was not opposed to using forged provenance documents and false histories to sell the plundered or counterfeit objects which passed through his hands. 

Van Rijn's relationship with law enforcement was complex, and often times contentious.  Facing multiple legal entanglements in several countries on charges ranging from smuggling to fraud, he nimbly managed to avoid prison sentences.  Likewise, his knowledge of the art market and its underground elements made him a valuable, if controversial, asset to investigators where he sometimes played the dual role of both criminal and an informant.  According to him, this position sometimes resulted in threats to his life and to his family members. 

Despite this, his legal cooperation led to the recovery of smuggled and stolen artworks, as well as the exposure of forgery rings, though many in the field consider his motives as self serving.  His informant status protected his interests and also served to out his misbehaving art market rivals. 

Despite, or perhaps born from his brushes with the law, Michel maintained a flamboyant public persona, cultivating a reputation that was equal parts charismatic rogue and master manipulator, a position he seemed to relish, alongside his new-found notoriety. On film, in several documentaries made about his exploits, he was blunt and brash with his opinions on how the art market really works. 

Later in life Van Rijn turned to writing, authoring several books and articles that provided rare glimpses into the murky world of art crime and which brought the general public's attention to the significant flaws in the system that governs the art trade.  Part autobiography and part exposé, Michel's writing detailed not only his own exploits but touched upon the broader issues of authenticity, smuggling, and the market's ethics or lack there-of.  This underscored the market's need for greater accountability.  While some praised his blunt and acerbic insights, others criticised him for being self-serving and for minimising his own skin in the game.

As a man who spent his entire career living in the grey areas of legality and morality, Van Rijn navigated his fame, as the spokesperson for the art world's underbelly, with a mix of charm, cunning, and audacity. Last week, on 25 July 2024, he died in Italy, still a figure shrouded in mystery and contradiction.   

To some, Michael Van Rijn was a necessary evil who helped shed light on the dark corners no one wants to explore within the high stakes game of buying and selling hot art.  To others, he was a Machiavellian manipulator who exploited his knowledge and his connections for selfish gains.  

Knowing a little bit about where and how Van Rijn lived in his latter years, I personally think his personal gain was short-lived and his death an estranged one. And while his methods and motivations are still being debated, there is no denying the impact Michel had on what we know about the crooked paths some objects travel, or the art market's dishonesty and cunning audacity, or the length some dealers go to exploit the market's loopholes and lax laws, and the often opaque nature of art transactions in the name of profit from ill-gotten gains.

By: Lynda Albertson

May 23, 2024

4th Francis Bacon painting stolen in Madrid is recovered by Spanish Police

Today, the Spanish authorities announced that the fourth of five stolen paintings, by the artist Francis Bacon has been recovered by the Policía Nacional España.  The operation followed upon the February 2024 arrest of two individuals who, it is alleged were the receivers of two of the stolen paintings. 

This hauntingly circa 1980, oil and pastel portrait, signed on the verso by artist alongside a dedication to its owner, was created in Bacon's vivid and distorted aesthetic.  A hauntingly blend of abstraction and figuration, the portrait's contorted form converges to evoke a profound sense of existential unease and demonstrates the painter's mastery of positive and negative space.  

Earlier, on the ARCA blog, we reviewed the theft, which occurred at a private residence in Madrid during the summer of 2015.  During that incident thieves entered a five-story building on the Plaza de la Encarnación—an affluent area in the centre of Madrid, near the Spanish Senate and the Royal Palace.  Once inside, the burglars broke into the residence while the property owner was out of the country in the UK. 

Entering the apartment without being seen by the doorman or other residents, the raiders went about disabling the apartment owner's alarm system and stole five visceral portraits, made by the Irish-born British figurative painter, in total worth an estimated €30 million.  The team of burglars also made off with jewellery and a collection of ancient coins valued at €400,000.    

In February 2016, the first major break in the case came in when an individual queried the Art Loss Register trying to establish if one of the stolen portraits had been listed as stolen.  Writing anonymously, the inquirer sent photographs of the painting which could only have been taken by individuals with access to the portrait after its theft.


This exchange proved critical to the investigation, and by March 2016 police had identified seven individuals believed to be involved in the theft and attempted circulation of the five stolen paintings.  Some of those,  named by the Spanish press, are stated to be:

• Ricardo Barbastro Heras, the lead organiser for the fencing network who has  a minor but significant criminal record and who is a relative of the later arrested Cristóbal García.  

• Antonio Losada de la Rosa and José Losada Manzano, a father/son duo of antique dealers from el Rastro, the most popular flea market in Madrid.

• Rafael Heredia González, a jeweller


By May 28, 2016 Spanish news reported that agents working with the Central Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) had arrested six more individuals in Madrid who were also believed to be connected to the theft or circulation of the artworks. By January 2017 that number grew to seven, bring the total arrests to fourteen.  Others reported by the Spanish press as allegedly having involvement in this crime are: 

• Cristóbal García, a dealer from Castellón who is considered to be one of the leaders of the operation

• Alfredo Cristian Ferriz González, AKA Cristian Ferriz or Christian Férriz, a close friend of García and a real Renaissance man in the criminal world with a long police record, eight of them for robbery with force, three for vehicle theft, one for threats and another for drug traffic.  

• Agustín González Serrano, affiliated with the photo shop which rented the camera used to send photos to the Art Loss Register

• Jorge de las Heras Escámez, a cousin of Ricardo Barbastro Heras, who worked in an art gallery

• Aquilino Jiménez Bermúdez, another seller from Madrid's el Rastro.

In 29 February 2024 the Historical Heritage Brigade of Spain's National Police announced the arrested two more individuals in connection to this increasingly complex police investigation.  

Previous recoveries related to this theft case. 

In 2017 investigators announced the recovery of three of the five stolen Francis Bacon artworks.  


On January 7, 2021 Dutch private investigator Arthur Brand tweeted that the remaining two stolen portraits were being shopped internationally via underworld contacts, complete with "proof-of-life" images which showed that the two portraits were still in relatively good condition despite being in the hands of fences.  One photograph published by Brand depicted the verso of one of the painting's with the Irish painter's signature, and date.  Another photograph provided but the private investigator showed the portrait which was announced as being recovered this week.   This painting was photographed laying on what appears to be a yellow couch cover.


The last photo, depicted below, shows the singular remaining stolen portrait from the Madrid theft.  This 35.5 x 31 cm oil and pastel on canvas painting was photographed lying on a tabletop, partially obscured by a copy of Spanish newspaper El País which is dated October 6, 2019.  

In various articles Brand indicated that he had received communication that indicated that underworld buyers were considering the two stolen Bacon portraits, not yet recovered by the police, telling journalists that he had been passed the video by an unnamed informant.  This person indicated that the two remaining artworks were being shopped by an individual going by the nom de plum, "Jason".  

Accompanying the video was a piece of paper which implied perhaps that the remaining two paintings might still be in Spain, even if the thieves had widened their marketing to contacts internationally.  Handwritten on this document was the would-be seller's alleged name "Jason" noting that it was signed at "Starbucks Madrid," on the date of "2020-5-11."

The artist Francis Bacon died on April 28, 1992 at the Ruber clinic in Madrid at 82 years of age.  Prior to his death he was reportedly in love with the young Spanish financier to whom gifted the paintings.

For now, the last painting remains listed on Interpol's stolen Works of Art database. 



May 16, 2024

Thursday, May 16, 2024 - , No comments

Rising Threats in the Art Market's Cybersecurity Landscape

While Christie's website continues to state “We apologise that our full website is currently offline” redirecting visitors to a temporary page outside of its own web domain, its auctions have managed to continue at a healthy pace.  Market players have underscored the auction house's fine art of resilience since the May 11th incident which occurred just days before the firms scheduled $840M art mega-auction. 

But while the art world's show must go on, tech security experts and the general public would like a little more information.

In its second cyber attack in less than a year, Christie’s assured its clients that its auctions would proceed, with bidders being able to participate in person, by phone, or through Christie’s Live platform.  But the auction powerhouse released no information regarding what systems had been impacted, just that they were working to resolve the situation with a team of internal and external technology experts to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.  Company CEO Guillaume Cerutti referred to the kerfuffle as a “technology security incident” but said nothing about whether or not financial or other sensitive data tied to Christie’s clientele had been compromised. 

Despite the web outage, Vojtěch Kovařík's
‘Hercules with his head in his hand’
sold for $94,500 on May 15th. 
In July 2023 Zentrust Partners alerted Christie’s to an earlier security breach which included sensitive location metadata being accessible from some uploaded photos.  This oversight is believed to have revealed the exact whereabouts of art owned by a percentage of the auction house’s wealthiest collectors,  potentially compromising their privacy and security by allowing access to data which identified the locations of where artworks had been photographed. Within a month, the auction house had enhanced their cybersecurity measures and offered its affected clients support and guidance on mitigating potential risks resulting from the breach.

In 2014 the Syrian Electronic Army hacked Christie's website, as well as 23 other sites including Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, Ferrari, the Independent, and the Daily Telegraph.  In this instance hackers attacked vulnerable sites accessing the Gigiya CDN and injecting a Javascript code which caused all the sites to display a specific  popup, drawing attention to the group's cause  Not engineered to inflict damage, the disrupters signed off with a postscript saying “PS: We would never attack users or damage systems. It was just a message.”


Its worth recalling that on October 29, 2023 the British Library experienced a technology outage with the library issuing a statement very similar to the one issued this month by Christie's CEO.  In that incident, library management described the incident as “a technology outage.”  

The British Library's incident turned out to be a highly sophisticated and disruptive cyberattack by the Rhysida ransomware group which continues to impact the institution's website, online systems, and services, as well as some onsite services, even today.  Like in the Christie's incident, the library was also forced into the position of having to set up a temporary website.  

The Rhysida ransomware group is believed to have originated from a collective of cybercriminals with extensive experience in malware development and network infiltration. Its ransomeware, debuted in mid 2023 and is distinguished by its advanced evasion techniques. 

To attack vulnerable systems, Rhysida utilises obfuscation methods to avoid detection by traditional antivirus and anti-malware solutions.  It is characterised by its rapid encryption process followed by the deployment of ransom demands.  

To access the system, Rhysida primarily exploits vulnerabilities to the systems through phishing attacks and other social engineering tactics.  Once inside, the malware renders its target's critical data inaccessible. 

Another distinguishing feature of the Rhysida group is their use of double extortion. Beyond encrypting data, they exfiltrate sensitive information and threaten to publish it unless a ransom in cryptocurrency is paid in exchange for the decryption key. The malware’s encryption algorithm is robust, and often leaves compromised victims with no choice but to pay the ransom or face significant data loss.

While the root cause of this recent Christie's outage has not been released, high impact incidences like these highlight vulnerabilities within the digital frameworks of important cultural institutions, as well as high-value asset transaction sites in the art market where customer names, accounts, banking details, and credit card information are ubiquitous to the online bidding process. 

May 12, 2024

When morality stops with one's own favourite coin(s).

 

Q. Servilius Caepio (M. Junius) Brutus AV Aureus

"When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee."
~ Pliny the Elder 

Unlike today, the ancient Romans didn’t simply number their calendar days in order from the first of the month to the last. Instead, they counted backward in relation to three days: the calends, nones, and ides.  The ides (from the Latin word īdūs) was the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months. 

But this post isn't about Roman calendars but rather how one rare coin, a Q. Servilius Caepio (M. Junius) Brutus AV Aureus, known as the Eid Mar Coin saw the rise and fall of one of the UK's numismatic titans for their known handling of unprovenanced coins and for having created fictitious collecting histories. 

Word on the coin collecting street, in late April, was that Roma Numismatics Ltd's April 25th E-Sale would be their last.  This chatter was being fuelled in part by the London-based firm's puzzling habit of changing bank accounts for wires as well as for the larger than the norm sales of Athenian tetradrachms and various other coins sold in their last two auctions.  Likewise, three Roma Numismatics staffers, Gil Southwood, Joe Hazell, Svetlana Egorova resigned from the firm and took up new positions with Andreas Afeldt's The Coin Cabinet. Others remaining stated they were open for new opportunities. 

While some speculated that the firm was experiencing financial difficulties, their publicaly available amended 2022 Statement of Financial Position listed their total assets, less current liabilities as totalling £10,988,553.  Despite this, by the start of the month, the writing was on the proverbial wall.  Letters had gone out to Roma Numismatics consignors telling them to collect their coins by the 17th as the firm would cease trading on May 24th.  For the present, their website remains active, but their sales calendar stops with their last April auction (and also makes no mention of their pending demise).

For background, on 10 January 2023 the director of the firm, Richard Beale was arrested in New York after being named in a New York criminal complaint alongside Italian coin dealer Italo Vecchi.  Beale was charged with making false statements, punishable as a class A misdemeanor pursuant to section 210.45 of the Penal Law.  At the same  time Vecchi was listed as working with Roma Numismatics as a consultant specialist who frequently consigned coins for sale in the firm's auctions. 

By August 14, 2023, in a courtroom session at the New York Supreme Criminal Court, Richard Beale had pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and three counts of criminal possession of stolen property.  In making his plea the company's owner also made two incriminating admissions.

Beale confessed and acknowledged his awareness that the provenances of the Alexander the Great decadrachms sold earlier by his firm were falsified at the time of their sale, with the intention of concealing their origins from the Gaza Hoard.  This despite the fact that he had been challenged by the producers of a BBC documentary regarding the false provenances listed on Roma Numismatics' auction site.

In total 19 of these, formerly very rare, Alexander decadrachms were sold - 11 of them via Roma Numismatics - with the provenance of the coins listed as either "from a private Canadian collection" or "ex-private European collection" many of which appear to have been traced to another problematic Roma Numismatics associate Salem Alshdaifat, a sometimes Canada based Jordanian. 

Alshdaifat, once based in Michigan has had his own run-in with the US authorities and was charged in U.S. v. Khouli et al. CR.11-340, (E.D.N.Y) .

Court records also indicated that Beale entered into a sales agreement with Vecchi in 2015, to purchase the extremely rare Eid Mar coin, minted in 42 BCE to commemorate the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March and that the pair had traveled to Munich, where they exchanged €450,000 in cash for the rare coin despite its lack of provenance paperwork or any form of legitimising documentation.


More recently it seems, with the looming closing of this enterprise and Beale's plea agreement, some of his firm's clients who previously closed their eyes to the origins of some of their purchases are getting nervous.  Other complain that Roma Numismatics' once upon a time guarantee on the absolute authenticity of all Lots sold, stating "There is no expiration to this guarantee" are realising instead there is, in fact, an expiration date to the fanciful phrasing of the Bidder's Terms and Conditions. 

Where Beale himself will go after the firms closing is unclear. Perhaps he will pen a Bruce McNall-type autobiography. "Fun While It Lasted" was a great read. And despite being written 20 years ago, the book showed the hubris of tricksters who have, and apparently still do, profit largely from the laundering and sale of illicit material.

By Lynda Albertson