This Regulation applies only to cultural goods created or discovered outside of the European Union.

The regulation was introduced in response to:

• Increasing international concerns about looted antiquities (particularly from conflict zones like Syria, Iraq*),
• The use of cultural objects to fund terrorism,
• The lack of uniform rules across EU Member States regarding the import of cultural goods.

1. Import Licences

From the opulence of Louis XIV to the refined lines of the Directoire style, ARCA rarely turns its lens on the scandals of the antique furnishings world.  But today, we wrap up a controversy that has shaken one of France’s most revered collecting spheres—one that once proudly occupied centre stage at the Biennale des Antiquaires.

Georges Pallot, known to his colleagues as "Bill" was long regarded as a preeminent authority on 18th-century French royal furniture.  Until his court ruling this week.

Yesterday, the flamboyant furniture expert was convicted, alongside his cohort, Bruno Desnoues, who ran a famous furniture restoration workshop in the Saint-Antoine district of Paris, of participating in a multi-million-euro forgery scheme that deceived major institutions as well as elite collectors.  

Among their victims: the Palace of Versailles and the brother of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani, then the owner of the Hôtel Lambert on Paris's Ile Saint-Louis as well as an heir to the Hermès family.  Each were unwitting purchasers of exquisitely crafted fakes, crafted from authentic 18th‑century chair frames with new components, gilding, upholstery, and forged stamps to produce extraordinarily convincing pieces mimicking designs tied to Marie Antoinette, Madame du Barry, and other royal figures.

Despite the seriousness of these offences, the verdict handed down by the Pontoise court on 11 June 2025 was strikingly lenient.  Following a full confession in which Pallot admitted “I was the head and Desnoues was the hands, ” the art advisor  claimed that he and Desnoues had started the scam for fun, to see whether they could pull it off. 

For his role as the mastermind of the fraud plot, Pallot was sentenced to four years in prison, with 44 months suspended.  The court also imposed a €200,000 fine and banned the fraudster from working in his chosen profession in France for a period of five years.  Yet, he retains his Paris apartment, and by his own admission, found the judge's fine “harsh”—a remark that rings hollow against the millions in illicit gains.

Desnoues, the hands behind the plot, was sentenced to three years in prison, with 32-months of that sentence likewise being suspended.  In practice, the only time either man spent behind bars was the four months in pretrial detention shortly after they were charged.  

Laurent Kraemer and his Kraemer Gallery, accused of deception by gross negligence were acquitted however the director still has other charges pending for a series of allegedly fake Boulle and Louis XIV furniture pieces.

All and all, not what I would call a severe deterrent, nor one which might serve to discourage others from exploiting similar high-stakes opportunities in the art world. 

What these verdicts underscore, however, is the glaring disparity between the immense profits that can be made through art crime and the disproportionately lenient penalties imposed on those who orchestrate them

How crime, at least in this instance, pays.

• Financial Gain vs. Legal Pain
  Pallot and Desnoues pocketed substantial sums of money before their fraud was exposed. A four-month custodial sentence is inconsequential when weighed against such profits. 

• Institutional Embarrassment
  Versailles, trusted the expert’s authority unquestioningly and later audits exposed glaring inadequacies in their due diligence processes, each vulnerabilities that the fraudsters leveraged to their own advantage.

• Insufficient Deterrents
  Pallot’s audacious dismissal of the scheme as a “breeze” underscores the minimal personal risk involved. With modest fines, no fresh prison time, and the ability to resume life unscathed, the art world remains an opportunistic path for those who want to bend the rules. 

This scandal also exposes deep systemic flaws that continue to plague the art world. Chief among them is the issue of expert impunity, allowing trusted experts to exploit their status to manipulate the market, thereby undermining the entire foundation of scholarly authentication and public trust. 

Exacerbating the problem is a glaring lack of rigorous due diligence across even the most esteemed institutions. The Palace of Versailles, for example, was shown to have inadequate safeguards for detecting forgeries—especially when those fabrications are engineered by individuals within their trusted circle. This case underscores how easily institutional confidence can be exploited when internal checks are either weak or absent.

Without robust financial and reputational consequences, such cases risk reinforce a dangerous precedent: that in the art world, crime can pay. 

By: Lynda Albertson

As the illicit trade in art and antiquities continues to thrive in both licit and grey markets, the need for sharp, investigative methodologies has never been greater. OSINT — the practice of collecting and analysing publicly available data — has proven to be a powerful tool in tracing looted cultural objects, debunking false provenances, identifying stolen artworks in circulation, and documenting digital evidence for restitution claims.

The new series of challenges will simulate real-world provenance research and investigative tasks, encouraging participants to hone skills in geolocation, reverse image search, metadata analysis, social media tracing, and transaction monitoring — all in the context of cultural property crime. Whether you're a student, journalist, researcher, or investigator, developing OSINT fluency can enhance your ability to verify ownership histories, identify risk indicators, and contribute to more transparent, ethical collecting practices.

By partnering with Bellingcat, ARCA aims to not only raise awareness of the role of digital research in cultural heritage protection but also to build a community of problem-solvers committed to uncovering the hidden stories behind stolen art.

W£ant to try your hand?  The first of the challenges can be unlocked here. Will you be the one to crack the case?