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November 22, 2024

This week's Hiéron Museum theft: Once, Twice, Three times a problem


The Hiéron Museum is a gem in Paray-le-Monial, a town known for its medieval architecture and religious history.  Located in the heart of Saône-et-Loire, the museum is home to a rich collection that spans various periods of French history. These include archaeological finds, religious artworks, and regional historical objects that trace the area's development from ancient Roman times to the modern era. 

The museum, designated a national treasure, was created in 1904 by goldsmith-jeweller Joseph Chaumet, who was the who's-who of jewellery makers in Paris at the time.  It is especially noted for its focus on two thousand year's of religious history, reflecting Paray-le-Monial’s longstanding connection to Catholicism.  

This week however, it was that very religious history which drew the attention of thieves, for the second time...for the second time...but really for the third time. 

In the second daylight theft at a French museum in less than one week, yesterday, at approximately 4pm, thieves targeting the Hiéron in a rapid-fire and aggressive theft.  Arriving by motorbike, a group of four accomplices, stuck, their target, the museum's religious centrepiece, in what has been described as a well-coordinated and well-timed art heist.

Upon arrival, one of the culprits stood watch outside while three others dashed in, firing several shots overhead to intimidate the museum's employees and visitors.  They then made their way over to the museum's national treasure sculpture, the "Via Vitæ" ("The Way of Life").  

Purchased by the city for the museum in 2004, the 3 metre by 3 metre majestic artwork is considered to be jeweller Chaumet's masterpiece.  It took the goldsmith ten years of work (between 1894 and 1904), to create this epic piece.  Steeped in Christian faith, as well as alabaster, gold, precious stones, silver, diamonds, and rock crystal, his sculptural and figural work depicts the most poignant episodes recorded in the life of Christ.  

The sculpture' foundation is its backdrop mountain, carved in marble and symbolising the path of faith for Christian believers.  Here, the life of Christ plays out, from top to bottom, taking the viewer on a visual tour of the "path of life" where each of multiple scenes are filled with delicate chryselephantine (gold and ivory) characters.  

On the front of the mountain are scenes of the Nativity, the Sermon on the Mount, the Wedding at Cana, the Raising of Lazarus and the Last Supper.  Higher up on the mountain path, viewers see the Garden of Olives, Christ's flagellation and ultimately, three crosses on the hill of Calvary.  The host, symbolising the body of Christ, is brandished by two female figures standing at the top of the mountain, and is set with rubies and diamonds, with the central stone being a large, cut, rock crystal. 

On the back side of the mountain, there are various symbols representing Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism as well as, perhaps subliminally, the seven deadly sins.  In total, the sculpture includes 138 figurines, each one delicately accented in gold, as they illustrate all of the important stories and characters of the New Testament, not just the Christmas nativity. 

Once inside the museum yesterday, the thieves worked to access the sculpture through its protective glass barrier, placed in front of the artwork to provide security.  They then broke through this barrier, purportedly using an angle grinder and a chainsaw.  Once the glass was breached, the culprits quickly snatched as many of the small gold and ivory statuettes and jewel encrusted elements as they could and in just two minutes the deed was done and the thieves' escape was made. 

Not the first time

The Musée du Hiéron was already the victim of a burglary on 29 June 2017.  At the time, two gold Romay crowns: la couronne de Notre Dame de Romay and the couronne celle de l'Enfant Jésus, created by goldsmith Paul Brunet in 1897, were stolen.

On Sunday, 25 September 2022, a second burglary attempt occurred at around 4am, when three would-be thieves again tried to access the room that houses the "Via Vitæ", by attempting a break-in at the window.  Luckily, that time the alarm sounded and the would-be burglars fled empty-handed, in their haste, leaving behind the ladder they had used to access the window.

Impact on the Local Community

The impact of this week's theft on Paray-le-Monial, a town with a population of just over 10,000, has to been profound. For the residents and the staff at the Hiéron Museum, the loss of these objects is more than just a financial blow; it’s a cultural tragedy which sends ripples of concern across the tight-knit community, where the  cultural institution serves as a touchstone for local identity and pride. 

A Broader Concern for Small Museums

The Hiéron Museum theft is part of a troubling global trend that highlights the vulnerability of small cultural institutions to criminal activity.  Museums, galleries, churches, and private collectors have long been targets for thieves seeking to profit from the illicit sale of stolen goods, with plundered religious material being highly prized.

One of the most troubling aspects of the yesterday's theft is the nature of the stolen items.  The pieces were not just valuable in a monetary sense but also as sacred and irreplaceable symbols of people's beliefs and traditions. Theft will always be a tragedy for museums, but when it involves beloved artworks that have been part of a community’s fabric, the loss is truly and deeply felt. 

November 21, 2024

Museum Theft: During the Musée Cognacq-Jay - Luxe de poche" Exhibition

Yesterday, thieves executed a daring daylight robbery at the Musée Cognacq-Jay, a museum located in the Hôtel Donon formerly owned by the eponymous family, and located in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris.                                                                                Around 10:30 a.m., four individuals armed with axes and baseball bats shattered a large glass display case in the museum, while wearing gloves, hoods, and helmets in order to conceal their identities selecting several of the most valuable pieces. The heist unfolded in front of visitors during regular opening hours, and no injuries were reported among staff and exhibition attendees.                                                                                                                                                            
All of the stolen objects were on loan to the museum as part of the temporary exhibition "Luxe de poche. Petits objets précieux au siècle des Lumières" which, because of its popularity, had been extended to run through 24 November 2024.  

The event showcased perfume bottles, candy boxes, music boxes, snuff boxes, and sewing kits decorated with gold, precious stones, mother-of-pearl or even enamels, highlighting objects from the 18th and early 19th centuries, which are representative of the Age of Enlightenment when precious objects like these were in vogue in France.  The event included objects loaned from the Château de Versailles, the Musée du Louvre, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Palais Galliera, the English Royal Collections and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 


In total, seven highly valuable objects were taken by the thieves before they made a hasty exit, departing into the Paris traffic on scooters. 

The stolen material taken in the robbery are as follows: 

This gold snuff box dating from the 8th century and encrusted with agate cabochons made by Johann Christian Neuber , known for his gold snuff boxes, which he called Steinkabinettabatiere.  This object was on loan from the Musée du Louvre. 

This snuff box made of agate plates dating from 1760-1770, with hard stone reliefs, joined by a gold cage mount, and a lid encrusted with numerous brilliant-cut diamonds,  made by Daniel Baudesson, also on loan from the Musée du Louvre. 


This diamond-covered box belonging to King Charles III, described as a green jasper snuff-box, mounted with gold borders, finely chased with flowers and foliage in vari-coloured gold with panels and borders richly overlaid with baskets and sprays of flowers, trophies and foliage.  This object has nearly three thousand diamonds backed with delicately coloured foils in shades of pink and yellow.


This chrysoprase snuffbox made in Berlin, Germany, in ca. 1765, associated with Frederick II, the Great, of Prussia (1712-1786), previously on display at the Somerset House as part of the Gilbert Collection ©,  The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.



This c.1780 snuff box made by Johann Christian Neuber, one of the most celebrated goldsmiths in the history of snuffboxes which combined his own technique of Zellenmosaik, or mosaic of hardstones set into gold collets, with the technique of Roman micromosaics only recently developed, part of the Gilbert Collection ©,  The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.


This diamond-encrusted, varicoloured-gold snuffbox, decorated with figures in neo-classical landscapes, gifted to Thomas Dimsdale (1712-1800), by Catherine II during the Russian smallpox epidemic of 1768, , part of the Gilbert Collection ©,  The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Prosecutors have indicated that the French police are treating this as an armed robbery by a criminal gang. As motives are explored, it should be remembered that due to their intricate craftsmanship and historical significance, snuffboxes made of gold and other precious materials, have long been prized by organised criminals, in part because they are small enough to easy move.   

Other examples of snuffbox thefts

"The Fulford Thefts" occurred in 1981 when Temple Newsam House in Leeds was burglarised in a nighttime heist, resulting in the loss of 24 exquisite snuffboxes.   In that incident, the culprits, operating under the cover of darkness, targeted these highly valuable items due to their intricate craftsmanship and historical significance. The incident was named after the notorious criminal gang linked to the thefts, and remains one of the most notable art crimes in UK history from a stately home.  The recovery of some pieces from this theft took decades. 

On June 10, 2003, the Johnson gang carried out a high-profile theft at Waddesdon Manor, a historic estate in Buckinghamshire, England. The gang broke into the Rothschild collection housed at the manor and stole over 100 priceless items, including a significant collection of antique gold snuff boxes. The meticulously planned raid lasted only minutes, during which the thieves targeted small but immensely valuable £5 million collection, due to their portability and worth. 

The Cognacq-Jay museum has specified that it is closed while the investigation is underway and that it will reopen on Tuesday, December 10, 2024.  People who have purchased advanced tickets for the “Luxe de Poche” exhibition or for other activities will be automatically refunded.

November 17, 2024

Crossposting: What happened during WWII at the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris?


From time to time ARCA hosts blog posts found on other blogs, (with the permission of the author) to highlight blogs of importance in this under-studied field.  This Sunday's entry comes from Plundered Art, a perspective from the Holocaust Art Restitution Project and is written by one of that organisation's founders, who also teaches Provenance during ARCA's programmes. 

What happened during WWII at the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris

 by Marc Masurovsky

I have to admit that historians are a strange lot, especially in the choices they make on what to research and write about. Whether they are aware of this or not, their choices, once published and commented on, shape our popular understanding of history and their omissions (what they are not interested in) deprive us of a fuller understanding of historical events, large and small. 

Take the Museum of the Jeu de Paume in central Paris. It is a typical example of this. Aside from the work of Emmanuelle Polack, there is not a single book that has been exclusively devoted to the history of the Jeu de Paume during the years of German occupation (1940-1944) of France. But there are at least 12 non-fiction books solely devoted to Rose Valland’s heroism and work as a French spy and a cultural property recovery officer for the French government.

The outside world may have experienced the historical Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris’ Jardin des Tuileries through the eyes of Rose Valland’s hagiographers. If you are a movie buff, you may catch a glimpse of it in “The Train” by John Frankenheimer, a paean to French railroad workers during WWII who tried their utmost to prevent France’s cultural treasures from being removed to Nazi Germany in the closing months of the German occupation of France. 

The rooms of the Jeu de Paume have been a regular feature on the French Ministry of Culture’s website for over a decade, illustrating its many rooms through contemporaneous black and white photographs made interactive so that you can discover the looted objects displayed there for Hermann Goering’s pleasure.

Do you really know what happened at the Jeu de Paume from Fall 1940 when it opened as a depot and processing station for confiscated Jewish cultural property to early August 1944 when it ceased to function as such? Do you know who worked there, what their jobs were, what objects they handled, how decisions were made day-to-day, why they chose certain objects and not others, their likes and dislikes, who hated who, who slept with who, the internal cliques? This is "perpetrator history" and it should not be ignored. Otherwise, you, we, end up knowing little about a fundamental cog in the machinery of cultural plunder devised by a perpetrator in the 20th century. History tends to repeat itself like an old cliché.

The Jeu de Paume was a laboratory of cultural plunder created by the perpetrators—the German occupying power and a Nazi plundering agency, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), its employees, experts and agents. It is therefore logical to dissect its internal mechanisms so that we can understand how looted, confiscated, misappropriated cultural assets are “handled” by those who carry out these crimes.
Alfred Rosenberg, founder of the ERR

To this day, the Jeu de Paume and the four-year long campaign of confiscation, processing, and dispersal of Jewish-owned cultural property reflects the dark side of the museum world and its cultural workers. Your involvement in the arts and cultural activities, whether as a producer or consumer, does not shield you from engaging in heinous acts as a deliberate cog in a machinery of racially-motivated exploitation, grand theft, and persecution. These people are your typical “collaborators”, persons who intentionally cast their lot with the new sheriff in town—in this case, the Nazis and their local Fascist supporters (in this case, partisans of the collaborationist Vichy government).

PS: The only "depot" of cultural objects that has received proper scholarly treatment is the postwar Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP) which supplanted Hitler's Führerbau as of May 11, 1945, as a central processing station for recovered looted objects. American cultural officials referred to in pop culture as the "Monuments Men and Women” managed the site. Dr. Iris Lauterbach of the Munich-based Zentral Institut für Kunstgeschichte is the author of that study.

The next article will be devoted to inventories, basic didactic instruments that document cultural plunder.

For more on WWII films with some mention of cultural plunder, check out:
For more on Rose Valland, see:
For more on the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, see:

 


November 8, 2024

In the news again: Vittorio Sgarbi’s art collection is again under scrutiny for more (allegedly) stolen artworks.

According to a story which was first broke via news reporters affiliated with Italy's  TV program Report and news agency Fatto Quotidiano, the Carabinieri TPC have seized two additional suspect works of art, found to be in circulation via Italy's former undersecretary for culture, Vittorio Sgarbi. 

The first is an altarpiece, entitled Compianto sul Cristo Morto, a 17th century work measuring 118 by 86.5 cm.  The painting represents one of several copies completed by the same artist, Giovanni Battista Benvenuti (also known as Ortolano) which feature more or less the same composition, the newly dead Christ, after his crucification, surrounded by mourners, with Golgotha in ancient Jerusalem, in the background.  This version matches most closely to one which was previously housed in the church of Porta di Sotto, known as the "Madonnina", in Ferrara, which is now in the Villa Borghese collection which is pictured here, at left. 

The altarpiece version connected to Sgarbi has been talked up as "an unpublished copy," like so many of Sgarbi's newly discovered, artistic discoveries are.   It had been scheduled to be hung at an ongoing exhibition Il Cinquecento a Ferrara: Mazzolino, Ortolano, Garofalo, Dossa which has been curated by the art critic scheduled to run through 16 February 2025 at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.

Following law enforcement investigations, which continue to be carried out, by the Carabinieri TPC, the altarpiece was removed from display at the Palazzo dei Diamanti just three days before the start of the exhibition, due to a "provision from the judicial authority for an ongoing investigation" according to Pietro Di Natale, director of the Ferrara Arte Foundation.  

In the exhibition's dossier, the missing painting is described as being the property of the Collezione Cavallini Sgarbi.  Unfortunately however, for the ex politician, his altarpiece is suspected to be an artwork which was stolen from a noble palace in 1984 belonging to journalist Paganello Spetia in Bevagna. 

In addition to this new suspect painting of Christ after his crucifixion, officers also are investigating the theft of a 1939 terracotta sculpture, titled Madre e Figlio, by Raffaele Consortini, an artist from Volterra, which had been in Sgarbi's possession for many years. 

As can be seen at the end of this video, Sgarbi displayed a sculpture, depicting a mother holding her infant child, during an exhibition titled Giotto and the Twentieth Century which ran from 5 December 2022 to 4 June 2023 at the Mart in Rovereto, another public museum presided over by the art critic.  In this instance, he indicated that the sculpture was the property of the Fondazione Cavallini-Sgarbi.  That said, this artwork too seems to be tied to another theft, as it apparently matches a sculpture reported as stolen twenty-seven years ago. 

In that instance the artwork was apparently taken from the burial chapel of the Nannipieri family, in Cascina, in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 60 kilometres west of Florence.  According to Antonio Nannipieri, a former judge of the Court of Appeal of Florence, the sculpture had been placed on the altar inside his family chapel by his mother shortly after the death of his son Lorenzo Nannipieri,  who died, along with his girlfriend, in an accident in 1987.  Ten years later, in 1997, the chapel was broken in to and the sculpture and two candelabras were stolen. 

In Judge Nannipieri's own words when informed that his son's sculpture was in Sgarbi's possession, he stated: “Maybe he didn’t know it was stolen, but a collector should check the provenance of the things he buys, especially if he then puts them in an exhibition.” 

Leaving aside for a moment that an art historian is more than an average collector, and is fully trained in how to research the origins of works of art, and leaving aside the fact that Sgarbi is now claiming that he too is an "injured party in the proceedings," this leads us to a second critical question, who Sgarbi got all these stolen works from in the first place. 

November 7, 2024

From Gallery to 'Washing Machine': How One Art Dealer’s Love for Banksy Served as Cover for an International Drug Ring

On 11 May 2022, officers involved in the Eurojust 'Arkan' operation, assisting in the investigation begun by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, deputy prosecutor Silvia Bonardi), and the Italy's Polizia del Stato raided 47 locations in Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.  Their goal, the simultaneous arrest of as many as 31 suspects allegedly involved in an international narco trafficking ring.  One of the suspects on police radar was the much-hyped, Italian art collector and street art enthusiast-turned gallerist, Andrea Deiana.     

Prosecutors and law enforcement officers working the investigation had determined  that multiple organised crime groups (OCGs),  involved in the highly profitable illegal trade, were utilising a protected communications tool called EncroChat, which offered its subscribers and the drug syndicates the use of modified smartphones for encrypted communication which offered self-destructing messages, an encrypted vault and a panic button in the event the user believed their device had been compromised.

White Hat cyber-exploit hackers in the European police had cracked the EncroChat phone system and began listening in, striking more intelligence gold that miners working South Deep in Africa.  By 2023, officers had intercepted some 115 million criminal conversations, by an estimated 60,000 users in which criminals openly negotiated, sometimes in extremely granular detail, money laundering, murders, counterfeiting, drugs, and firearms trafficking.  By 2023, law enforcement's analysis of these messages and photos resulted in some 6658 arrests worldwide following the interception and analysis of over 115 million criminal conversations, by an estimated 60,000 users. 


Key members of one identified OCG which traded cocaine, ketamine, and cannabis on a large scale used the nicknames: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Pinocchio, Grandma Maria, Milly, Nestor, (the name of a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary, Nestor Ivanovic Machno) and the street artist "Banksy".  The latter being the nom de plum used by Andrea Deiana.

According to reconstructions by prosecutors, decrypted messages sent by Deiana in 2020, discussed ways to "clean the money" made through the network's drug trade, using sales of works of art and, in at least in one case, through the purchase of a lithograph by the street artist Banksy brokered via Deiana and his gallery in the heart of Amsterdam.  

Speaking to then-fugitive-from-justice Vincenzo Amato, a member of the Coluccia clan of Galatina in the Salento hinterland, Deiana wrote, "you can clean money without paying expenses, on the contrary, earning" and openly boasted about using his Dutch art gallery as a "washing machine." 

The Italian art dealer then is alleged to have funnelled €500,000 in proceeds from drug dealing into the purchase of an important autographed lithograph by the street artist Bansky which depicts the famous mural painted by the artist in Jerusalem on the wall between Israelis and Palestinians, known as The Flower Thrower.  Afterward, Deiana flipped the lithograph via his cuban girlfriend, to Pier Giulio Lanza, the controversial founder of The Dynamic Art Museum, for €200,000, plus a future balance of investments of digital NFTs, which apparently never took off. 

As part of a prosecutorial action, in May 2020 the Dutch judicial authority sealed Art3035,  Deiana's and his girlfriend Chiara D'Agostino's contemporary gallery on Amsterdam's Keizersgracht, one of the three main canals in the Dutch city  in compliance with an international rogatory.  On or around this date their socials also went dead.

After a year and a half on the run, Deiana was dragged back to Italy from Mexico City on 13 January 2024 in order to stand trial on drug charges in Italy.  Sentenced quickly  thereafter, in the court of first instance, to 16 years and 8 months in prison as the promoter of the criminal association, his lawyers quickly appealed.  This week, the Court of Appeal of Milan upheld a sentence of 12 years incarceration plus the confiscation, at the request of the deputy attorney general Paola Pirotta, of  The Flower Thrower lithograph by Banksy. 

Deiana's conviction is a textbook example of how the subjective valuation of art can make it an effective tool for money laundering. Criminals and “prestanome” (or front) dealers can move large sums of illicit money through art transactions without attracting the scrutiny of banks or regulators, effectively masking the money’s illegal origins. Artworks are also highly portable, making them ideal for transferring illicit funds across borders and further complicating efforts to track and control the flow of illegal money.

By:  Lynda Albertson

November 1, 2024

Edoardo Almagià Wanted: Manhattan DA Seeks Arrest of Dealer in Major Antiquities Smuggling Case

Just over a year ago, ARCA published a post highlighting suspect artefacts which passed through Michael L. Ward's variously named galleries which were worth further exploration.

In that blog post, it was noted that, according to Edoardo Almagià's Italian sentencing document, the convicted Italian dealer sold Michael Ward the following artefacts:

a. A black figure kylix;
b. A marble lion mask;
c. A  marble sculpture depicting a draped woman; 
d. A terracotta mask;
e. A torso of Aphrodite;
f. A romanesque capital;
g. A cameo female bust in marble;
h. A Roman marble urn;
i. A python crater from  Paestum  + 2 bronze vases;
j. A black figure olpe and marble torso;
k. 2 Attic craters, a hydria and abell crater.

Almagià, a Princeton-educated antiquities dealer, was born in New York to prominent Jewish Italian immigrant parents.  Once a high-profile dealer, between 1980 and 2006 he conducted lucrative sales to numerous museums and collectors, mingling with fallen-from-grace art-world elites like Marion True, Dietrich von Bothmer, and Michael Padgett.

Triade Capitolina on display at the Palazzo del Quirinale

1992

Almagià first became a person of interest in 1992 during Italian investigations. Facing charges for his own crimes, notorious capozona Pietro Casasanta revealed to interrogators that he had shopped the freshly looted Triade Capitolina to Almagià for his U.S. clients.  Casasanta told Carabinieri officers that he had sent the dealer a Polaroid of the recently excavated sculpture which depicts the tutelary deities of Rome—Jupiter, flanked by an eagle, Juno, and Minerva in a Corinthian helmet—shortly after it was unearthed in Guidonia Montecelio, near Rome. 

Almagià reportedly offered to pay Casasanta a meagre $20,000 for the multi-million-dollar statue, and after a bit of drama between the pair, Casasanta declined on the offer and sold hislooted marble sculpture to the owner of Atelier Amphora, Mario Bruno, another suspect intermediary dealer operating in Lugano, who also had zero compunction about buying suspect art and selling it onward. 

1996

By 1996, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) had seized two dozen Etruscan ceramics from the New York Upper East Side gallery of Renee and Robin Beningson which had ties to Edoardo Almagià.  According to that investigation, all 24 artefacts at New York's Antiquarium Ltd., had been looted from what is now known as the Parco Archeologico di Crustumerium. This site represents an ancient city which once overlooked the Tiber between Eretum and Fidenae north of Rome.   

Later evidence would determine that following the seasonal closure of an authorised excavation at Crustumerium in July 1987,  Almagià had hired tombaroli—professional looters—to pick up where the departing archaeologists had left off. 

The dealer is then alleged to have had the goods, extracted by the looters, smuggled out of Italy, passing first through Switzerland, before ultimately travelling overseas to New York where they came into the control of the Beningsons.

2000

Almagià’s next brush with the law came when he was stopped at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International airport in Queens, New York in 2000 with two stolen Italian frescoes from the ancient city of Vulci that he had falsely declared.  

Six weeks later, one of his commercial shipments was also stopped in Newark, New Jersey.  That shipment contained five stolen Italian antiquities and was again accompanied by false documentation. 

2006

By 2006, Almagià’s high life as a prestigious dealer cracked completely when, in April 2006, Special Agents with the US Department of Homeland Security, with intel assistance from officers with Italy's Carabinieri, obtained the legal authorisation to enter and photograph the contents of the dealer's New York apartment on 169 East 78th Street, as well as his rental storage space at Manhattan Mini-Storage, located at 420 E 62nd Street in New York.  There, officers documented dozens of antiquities and stacks of business records which coldly outlined the extreme excesses of this dealer's trafficking operations.   

Like Giacomo Medici's and Gianfranco Becchina's earlier archives, the "Almagià Archive" recovered in this law enforcement operation includes sales transaction ledgers, written in the dealer's handwriting, referred to by officers as the "Green Book" and the "Yellow Book" encompassing transactions  in 1997 and 1998.

In the "Green Book" Almagià listed, in concrete details, a total of 1,698 artefacts which he had sold out of his New York apartment. To do so, he often grouped artefacts by the tombarolo from whom he had purchased the material (identifying the supplying tombarolo by his nickname or initials).  Some entries listed in these ledgers designated both the price Almagià paid to his source, as well as the price he subsequently sold the artefact for.  On occasion, some entries even list to whom the looted artefact was sold onward to.

For example, one entry for an "Attic red fig. Lekythos w panther" shows that Almagià bought the object for $1,000 from "Mau," whom researchers identified as the tombarolo Mauro Morani).  He then asold the vessel onward to "antiq", the abbreviation for the previously mentioned New York gallery, Antiquarium, operated by Renee and Robin Beningson for $2,000.  

The extant pages of the "Yellow Book" document an additional 84 stolen antiquities or groups of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Almagià  and/or his cousin Peter Cesare Glidewell who operates a gallery space registered in the UK and operating in Spain known as Caylus Fine Art Limited.  The level of detail in both of these ledgers ultimately created a strikingly clear blue print, which, along with seized Day Planners, invoices, and lists, has given authorities a clear map to follow which has proven critical to this complex and lengthy investigation, and to tracing where each of the suspect artefacts handled by Almagià went after he cashed in. 

Through the initial work on this US investigation, seven antiquities were quickly identified as having been looted from Italy.  But while the review was still under way, Almagià used the intervening time to shift more suspect objects and their documentation from his apartment and storage facility into a shipping container which was then placed on a ship bound for Naples.  Afterward, he fled the country.

When the ship was intercepted at the port of Naples on December 14, 2006, Italian authorities recovered 37 paintings and numerous archaeological objects as well as thousands of documents and, the now tell tale Polaroid photographs used by traffickers during this time period.   

Immediately after the 2006 seizure in Naples,  Italian prosecutor Paolo Giorgio Ferri brought charges against the dealer, Princeton University Art Museum’s then-curator Michael Padgett and Mauro Morani a tomb raider and caposquadra who provided Almagià with first dibs on looted antiquities, for knowingly committing crimes against the cultural heritage of Italy.

Acquittal, Seizures, and Restitutions

Unfortunately, Almagià's criminal case in Italy was dismissed in 2012due to the statute of limitations, though the Italian courts upheld the confiscation of all relics previously in his possession.  IN making that ruling the presiding judge stated that his activities contributed to "one of the greatest sacks of Italian cultural heritage based on the sheer amount of stolen goods."

In connection with the U.S. side of the investigation, New York’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has diligently worked to identify over 2,000 stolen antiquities trafficked by Almagià.  To date they have recovered 221 of them, worth an estimated  $6 million. 

Of these, 150 objects were seized as part of the Michael Steinhardt investigation, with the New York billionaire having purchased a total of ten known and restituted items from the Italian. 

Arrest Warrant

Yesterday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office obtained an arrest warrant for Edoardo Almagià based upon three charges:

  1. Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree under Penal Law § 105.10(1)
  2. Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree under Penal Law § 190.65(1)(b)
  3. Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree under Penal Law § 165.50

This arrest warrant, totaling 80 pages, details the grave extent of this trafficking network and ultimately the harm he caused to Italy’s cultural heritage. As New York authorities await their day in court with this trafficker, the hope remains that dealers, collectors, and museums, with outstanding pieces purchased via this dealer or their subsequent handlers, will come forward and disclose the remaining pieces which are tied to Almagià.

Explosion Rocks MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk, High-Value Warhol Artworks Stolen

A powerful explosion at 03:05 am tore through the MPV Gallery on Dorpsstraat in Oisterwijk, a city in the south of the Netherlands.  This in turn allowed burglars to enter the art gallery and steal several high-value Andy Warhol artworks in what appears to hae been a strategic and thought out art heist.  According to Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Brabant, the blast was so strong that it ripped the gallery’s front door from its hinges, shattering windows in ten neighbouring buildings and damaging signage throughout the vicinity.  No injuries were reported; however, the blast caused extensive property damage and raised security concerns among local residents.

Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser revealed that the thieves targeted four silkscreens from the iconic Reigning Queens series by American pop artist Andy Warhol. Released in 1985, two years before Warhol’s death, the portfolio depicts four reigning queens from that era: 

Released as a portfolio in 1985, just two years before Warhol's death, the series of images is one of the artist's  largest and most iconic portfolios, with sixteen silkscreen prints depicting four of the reigning queens from that period:

Queen Ntombi Twala who has been the Queen Mother of Eswatini (present day Swaziland since 1986);

Queen Beatrix who reigned from 1980 to 2013 in the Netherlands;

Queen Elisabeth II who reigned from February 1952 until her death on 8 September 2022 in the United Kingdom;

Queen Margrethe II who took the throne in Denmark in 1972 after the passing of her father, Frederick IX, and who is still in power today. When she succeeded her father, she became the first ruling queen of Denmark since 1412. As of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022, Queen Margrethe is currently the only queen regnant in Europe.

In the explosion's aftermath, the thief or thieves left the silkscreens of Queen Ntombi Twala and Queen Beatrix on the pavement but, having ditched the frames of the remaining two, managed to successfully make off with the silkscreens of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Margrethe, fleeing the scene in a Peugeot, which officers later discovered abandoned on Wolvensteeg.

The gallery's owner, Mark Peet Visser declined to disclose their value when asked by the Dutch press, although he did relay that  the works were well insured.  Andy Warhol defined his silk screening in the most traditional of ways. Each of these were produced using Lenox Museum Board and we signed  in pencil and given numeric designations which will make them difficult to sell on the licit market. 

At this stage, no suspects or motives for the burglary have been disclosed and evidence collection and analysis of CCTV footage from nearby locations remains  ongoing.  Police are urging anyone with information to come forward as the investigation continues.

Founded in 1992, the MPV Gallery specialises in contemporary and modern art and has operated internationally, drawing art collectors from across the globe. The explosion and theft, which has shocked the local art community, also underscore rising concerns about the security of high-value artwork in small galleries. 

October 30, 2024

Wednesday, October 30, 2024 - ,,, No comments

Derzhprom Under Fire: The Bombing of Kharkiv’s Historic UNESCO cited Skyscraper

In the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, has long impacted the city of Kharkiv, but Russia's bombing this week struck the historic 13-story Derzhprom building, also known as the State Industry House, a symbol of architectural ingenuity that included overhead walkways and individual interlinked towers.  This iconic Soviet-era "skyscraper", located on the southwest side of Svobody Square, is not only a significant part of Ukrainian history but also represents the first modern skyscraper to be built in the city at the time when it was the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991.

Derzhprom: A Glimpse into Soviet Architectural Heritage

Built between 1925 and 1928, with an opening timed to match the 11th anniversary of the October Revolution, the Derzhprom building is a hallmark of Constructivist architecture of that period.  Designed with a massive concrete facade, its stark lines gave the building an imposing silhouette —one that seemed to embrace minimalism, function, and mass production, all traits which reflected the Soviet ideals of efficiency, progress, and growth of the era.  

When completed, the architectural icon was once the tallest structure in the Soviet Union and Europe. 


UNESCO Status and International Protection

UNESCO has long recognised the historical significance of Derzhprom as being the largest constructivist building in the world and of significant importance for humanity.  The building was placed under its tentative UNESCO World Heritage list on April 27, 2017 in light of paragraph 32 of the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention.

The non-military use declaration was signed by the Ministry of National Defense of Ukraine on 31 August 2023 stating that the cultural property “Derzhprom (the State Industry Building)” (Ukraine) would not be used for military purposes or to shield military or as a military site.  

Following this declaration, on September 7, 2023 UNESCO's committee included 20 of Ukraine's cultural heritage sites in the International List of Cultural Property UNder Enhanced Protection, among them, Kharkiv's Derzhprom.  This designation was a milestone in international recognition for Ukraine’s Soviet-era heritage, an highlighted Derzhprom not only as a building of local or national value, but also as a site of “outstanding universal value” reflecting UNESCO's commitment to safeguarding rare sites that contribute to shared human culture.  


This week's damage, however, shows the limitations of written protections in times of war.   Despite UNESCO's designations, and Ukraines promises that the site would not be used strategically in the conflict, a Russian guided bomb on Kharkiv struck  administrative offices and civil offices inside the building on Monday.  The airstrike  occurred at the building's entrance where the economic court is located and according to Mykola Chehunov, the director of State Industry, completely destroyed one of the walls and ceiling above the third floor of the building, while the second floor - under it, sustained damage as the result of windows being blown out.  Residential buildings, a hospital and educational institutions nearby were also damaged.

Not its first wartime suffering, the building was heavily damaged in World War II, when Nazi occupying forces attempting to destroy the Derzhprom as they retreated in August 1943 using mines.  After the war, the building was rebuilt,

The Broader Implications of Protecting Cultural Heritage in Wartime

The situation in Kharkiv reveals broader questions about the protection of cultural heritage during times of war. Derzhprom’s bombing demonstrates the limits of international laws aimed at safeguarding historic sites and highlights the need for more robust mechanisms to protect heritage in active conflict zones. In a world where cultural heritage is increasingly targeted in conflicts, the destruction of Derzhprom is a sobering reminder of the stakes involved in geopolitical conflicts. 

October 28, 2024

Protecting the Past, Shaping the Future: ARCA’s Two 2025 Postgraduate Certificate Programmes in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage


In 2025, ARCA is breaking new ground by offering not one, but two Postgraduate Certificate Programmes in art crime and cultural heritage. When ARCA launched its original interdisciplinary programme in 2009, it was the first of its kind, addressing the urgent need to train professionals in understanding the hidden networks and illicit activities within the art world.  Through an intensive, hands-on approach, ARCA’s summer program has since trained individuals from forty-two countries in tackling and exploring the complexities of art crime and cultural heritage preservation. 

If you've been keeping an eye on recent news, you're aware that incidents like museum thefts, forgeries, looting, and the illicit trade of cultural goods are far from isolated. These crimes contribute to a larger web of criminal activity that includes intentional destruction and plunder of cultural heritage during and after conflicts, incidences known to fuel instability in regions worldwide.

Despite the clear threat, many galleries, auction houses, and museums still struggle to vet acquisitions to problematic material, leading to lengthy and ongoing challenges regarding the provenance and ethical acquisition of material.  ARCA’s programmes give trainees the skills to recognise and confront these issues head-on, looking at the big picture of art crime across borders, time periods, and legal systems to see just how profoundly these issues impact global cultural heritage.

This legacy is more than history—it’s a shared treasure, one that defines and connects us all. Protecting it is essential to preserving our cultural future. ARCA’s programs, still the longest-running and most comprehensive of their kind, have equipped countless professionals with the tools to do just that.

Here are five reasons to apply to one (or both!) of our Post Lauream Certifications in: 

Art and Antiquities Crime 
and 
Acquisition & Interpretation of Cultural Property:
  1. Unique Dual-Program Offering: 2025 marks the first year you can choose between two unique tracks—or combine them for a comprehensive education covering all facets of art crime and cultural heritage protection and receive two certifications in one summer.

  2. Expert-Led Instruction: Learn directly from field-leading experts and practitioners whose real-world experience will give you a critical understanding of the art world’s complexities and the dark side that threatens it. ARCA's lecturers are international thought-leaders on the topic of art crime who actively work directly in this sector. 

  3. Practical, Real-World Training: Go beyond traditional studies with an interdisciplinary approach that brings together criminology, art history, law, and cultural preservation for a complete understanding of this global issue. ARCA’s immersive summer format delivers hands-on learning, allows you to engage deeply with the subject, practicing skills in real-world contexts that mirror the challenges faced by today’s professionals.

  4. Interdisciplinary InsightsEach course in each programme integrates multiple disciplines, offering perspectives that connect the dots between criminal motives, legal issues, and the protection of cultural heritage.

  5. Join a Global Network of Alumni and Professionals: Graduates of ARCA’s program are making waves in cultural institutions, law enforcement, museums, and legal spheres worldwide, and you’ll join a supportive network dedicated to combating art crime.

Protecting cultural heritage is an urgent and rewarding calling—why not apply to join us in changing the status quo.  For more information please see ARCA's website here.

To request further information on ARCA's Post Lauream I & II in Art and Antiquities Crime and the Acquisition & Interpretation of Cultural Property or to receive the 2026 prospectus and application materials, please email us at:

programmes (at) artcrimeresearch.org

October 25, 2024

Outdone by a tube of paint costing €79, Vittorio Sgarbi's alleged involvement in a painting scandal could cost him 4 to 12 years in prison


Italy's Macerata prosecutor’s office has concluded its investigation into the theft of the painting The Capture of Saint Peter by Rutilio Manetti, seized in January.  As mentioned in our earlier blog post, this case has stirred significant controversy in Italy’s art world as it has implicated flamboyant art critic and former Undersecretary of State for Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi. 

Evidence presented in the expert report, including a forger’s confession, as well as an in-depth analysis of materials used on the canvas, points to Sgarbi's alleged involvement in forgery and laundering, putting him at risk of a serious prison sentence. 

The investigation, which drew national attention last January started as a journalistic probe by journalists working with Il Fatto Quotidiano and Report.  This later evolved into a full-scale inquiry where the former politician was formally named as a suspect in a case of theft, laundering, and art counterfeiting, for (it is alleged) his role in trying to conceal the true origins of the artwork.

A major development in the case was the discovery of a 250 ml tube of Cremnitz White paint, allegedly purchased from the famous Poggi artist supply shop in Rome, within walking distance of the Collegio Romano where Vittorio Sgarbi was Undersecretary of State for Culture. 

What's so special about Cremnitz White oil paint?

Lead white was the only white used in European easel paintings all the way until the 19th century when Titanium White was introduced.  Cremnitz White, a specific type of lead white made from lead carbonate (PbCO₃), is known for its warm, slightly yellowish hue, and is highly prized by Old Masters. 

Named after the Bohemian town of Kormeriz where this type of paint was originally produced and called Cremnitz while under Hapsburg rule, this lead paint has a unique, stringy consistency that distinguishes it from other lead whites. Unlike Flake White, Cremnitz White contains no zinc oxide, which means it dries more slowly but retains a smoother, more workable texture ideal for traditional painting techniques.

Pasquale "Lino" Frongia
The artist behind the forgery of The Capture of Saint Peter by Rutilio Manetti is said to be 66-year-old Pasquale Frongia, a friend of Sgarbi's.  Known to most as "Lino," Frongia has reportedly stated that he added a torch to the painting at the art critic's request—an addition to the painting not painted by Manetti's hand. 

Frongia is known across Europe as a remarkable and accomplished copyist and has twice faced European arrest warrants, in 2019 and 2023, based on forgery charges issued by the Paris court, though Italy has resisted his extradition to date.  In June 2023, the Carabinieri of Reggio Emilia arrested Frongia who stands accused of fraud and money laundering crimes.  

According to what has been stated by the French judicial authorities the forger would have created paintings on behalf of Emilian art merchant Giuliano Ruffini, who himself was extradited to France last December.  Ruffini is then alleged to have sold the paintings onward to museums in all of Europe, including the Louvre, attributing them to great painters.

Investigators believe that the Manetti artwork, stolen on 14 February 2013 from a castle in Buriasco, was altered either to increase its market value or to differentiate the painting, once handled by Sgarbi, from the one which had been reported as stolen.  

After going missing, the artwork resurfaced eight years later, displaye in an exhibition in the city of Lucca, I Pittori della Luce.  During this exhibition the painting was presented as coming from Sgarbi's personal collection and as having been found in an attic at the Villa Maidalchina, which in the 1600s was owned by Olimpia Pamphilij, sister-in-law of Pope Innocent, owned by the Sgarbi family since the year 2000.

Consultant to the Public Prosecutor's Office Barbara Lavorini who is a conservator for the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro in Rome conducted photogrammetric surveys of the artwork, which included biological analysis of the painting's fibres, x-rays and multispectral analysis looking into what was believed to be a newly added torch, to determine if this detail was a recent addition or an original feature.

In her evaluation Lavorini writes: 

"As regards any modifications or additions to the original pictorial layout - the technical document states - it was possible to demonstrate that in the upper left part of the painting new elements were created with industrially produced pigments: the lit torch, the light around it and the layers that define the outline of the column".

Additional analysis also found signs of improper handling, suggesting that the painting was once rolled and stored improperly, perhaps damaged when the painting was stolen from the Castello di Buriasco and reported as stolen by Margherita Buzio as well as conditions compatible with the photos that showed it rolled up “like a carpet” the day it was delivered to Gianfranco Mingardi, one of Sgarbi's restorers, at the exit of the A4 motorway in central Brescia. 

For now, the legal complications for Sgarbi are serious. According to the Italian news site Il Fatto Quotidiano, Sgarbi's lawyer, Giampaolo Cicconi has been in contact with the attorney representing the owner of the stolen painting, which suggests that a settlement with her might be proffered as a means to get the artwork's owner to withdraw her civil action. 

If convicted, the €79 euro tube of paint may cost Sgarbi 4 to 12 years in custody, a hefty sum, for what some are now calling Vittó's little candle of disgrace.

For a look at the differences between the original artwork and the one possessed by Signore Sgarbi, take a look at ARCA's overlay of the stolen painting and the one exhibited at the early exhibition I Pittori della Luce. Da Caravaggio a Paolini, in Lucca.

Aside from the lighted torch element, which illuminates the architectural backdrop on the upper left side, the painting owned by the Cavallini Sgarbi Foundation is objectively identically proportioned character by character to the painting stolen from the Buriasco Castle.  

One could argue, as Vittorio Sgarbi has, that the stolen painting was a much later replica of his painting, however that still would not explain the absence/occurrence of the lit torch, and again, how the artisan who replicated the work would have precisely matched the brush strokes in such an extracting way. 

According to the investigations of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the admissions of Pasquale Frongia, the Carabinieri's assessment agrees.  Their note reads:  

"The investigations have therefore made it possible to establish that the 'maquillage' operation had been directly commissioned by Vittorio Sgarbi to the painter Pasquale Frongia, contradicting the version publicly provided by the art critic on the provenance of the painting, namely the casual discovery of the work inside Villa Maidalchina in Viterbo, purchased by his family in 2000".

By: Lynda Albertson