Blog Subscription via Follow.it

Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

November 25, 2025

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 - ,, No comments

Last Alleged Member of Louvre Strike Team Caught as Paris Police Make Four New Arrests


According to Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, four additional arrests have been made in connection with the high-profile jewellery robbery carried out at the Musée du Louvre on 19 October 2025. Among those detained is the final alleged member of the commando team believed to have executed the theft in the Apollo Gallery during public opening hours. This fourth suspect, a resident of Aubervilliers, was taken into custody early this morning in Laval, Mayenne, by investigators from the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB). He is currently being held for questioning along with another man and two women arrested during the same operation.

Three men, aged between 35 and 39, had already been indicted following the launch of formal judicial proceedings on 29 October. All three face charges of robbery in an organised gang and criminal association. 

Two of the named suspects, Ayed Ghelamallah and Abdoulaye Niakate, are alleged to be the pair who entered the Louvre gallery on the François Mitterrand quay while posing as workmen. They were arrested on 25 October and ordered into pretrial detention. Their identification reportedly stems from DNA recovered both at the crime scene and from one of the motorbikes used during their escape.

A third, member of the four-man team, Slimane K., who is suspected of having driven one of the two scooters used in the theft, was arrested on 29 October.  He has  likewise been ordered held in police custody pending trial. All four alleged participants appear to have lived in or near the Aubervilliers commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis district of Paris.

In addition to the suspected thieves, a 38-year-old woman arrested on 29 October has been charged with complicity in the robbery.

Today's Developments

The four new arrests made today remain under investigation and follow the continuing work of France's BRB to dismantle the full network believed to have been involved in or provided material support for the museum theft. 

Despite the progress made by investigators, the stolen jewels, which are estimated to be worth approximately 88 million euros, have not yet been recovered.

October 26, 2025

Sunday, October 26, 2025 - ,,,, No comments

Two Suspects Arrested in Connection with the Louvre Museum Jewel Heist


One week after the dramatic 19 October 2025 jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, French investigators have reportedly identified suspects through DNA evidence found at the crime scene.  Forensic teams collected more than 150 samples, including fingerprints and other traces from items the thieves left behind including gloves, a helmet, cutting tools, a blowtorch, and a yellow safety vest.  The perpetrators also failed to destroy the truck-mounted lift used during the heist, providing investigators with additional clues.

News of a break in the case was first reported by the French news service, Le Parisien  citing anonymous sources,

The newspapers story was confirmed via the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, who stated that two men in their thirties were arrested.  One subject was taken into custody while preparing to board a flight to Algiers at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport northeast of the city centre of Paris.  The second suspect was apprehended at a location in Seine-Saint-Denis, a historically working-class immigrant commune in the northern suburbs of Paris.  

Both suspects are said to have prior records according to French media and will likely be formally charged with organised robbery and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime.

In her statement, prosecutor Beccuau expressed regret over the premature press release of information related to the case, emphasising that such leaks could seriously undermine the investigation.  She noted that the disclosure risked hindering the coordinated work of roughly one hundred investigators who have been mobilised to recover both the stolen jewellery and apprehend all those involved in the crime. Her comments reflected concern that publicising sensitive details too soon could compromise ongoing efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The investigation continues as authorities search for the remaining two members of the four-man team as well as the missing jewels.

October 19, 2025

Sunday, October 19, 2025 - ,,,, No comments

Jewel Heist at the Musée du Louvre

The Crown Jewels Display Cases Room 705, Denon Wing, Level 1
Image Credit Musée du Louvre

As reported by France's interior minister Laurent Nunez, a tragic theft occurred around 09:30 local time this morning at the Musée du Louvre, France's premier museum and former royal palace.

Galerie d’Apollon, circa 1890

It appears that several masked individuals gained entry to the museum from the Quai François-Mitterrand side of the palace using a bucket elevator mounted onto a furniture-moving truck which they drove and parked along the side of the building facing the Seine River.  Riding up to the first floor, two thieves then entered the museum, breaking in through a window which leads to the Denon wing.  Their target was the Louvre's recently redesigned Galerie d’Apollon, on the first (upper) floor of a wing known as the Petite Galerie.

This 60-meter-long royal gallery was completed during the reign of Henry IV and hosts the portraits of the kings and queens of France).  The iconic room was later redesigned between 1661 and 1663 for Louis XIV when he was a resident of the palace.  In 2020, the gallery's ten-month renovation included an update to three of the room's most important display cases, replacing the original ones created by the sculptor-ornamentalist Charles Gasc in 1861.  

The new brushed-steel cabinets housed the royal collection of gems and the Crown Diamonds, or what remains of them, which were previously exhibited in two separate places in the Decorative Arts Department.  Placed in single file along the center of the room, one after the other, the aim was to provide visitors with a comprehensive and historical overview of the museum's unique jewellery creations and their symbolic importance in terms of France's monarchical identity, from the Ancien Régime to the Second Empire. 

The first display case housed jewellery dating from before the Revolution. The second displayed jewellery from the First Empire, the Restoration, and the July Monarchy, while the third display case housed jewellery from the Second Empire, including remnants of Empress Eugénie's grand finery. 

Once inside the museum, two accomplices are said to have used an angle grinder to break open two of the new vitrines which housed the jewels of the Second Empire (1852–1870) and the sovereigns' jewels (1800–1852). 

In just seven minutes, the perpetrators were in and out of the Louvre, carrying away  eight priceless pieces from the French collection, before making a hasty getaway on two Yamaha TMax scooters they also drove to the scene.  Filmed by CCTV cameras, the jewel thieves appear to have left the museum heading in the direction of the A6 motorway and are said to have dropped one of the nine pieces they initially grabbed. 

Initial reports, including one by a witness passing by on a bike, indicate that there were four perpetrators in total: two who dressed as workmen, each wearing a yellow or orange safety vest who ascended the cherry-picker and broke into the museum's gallery.   Two other accomplices  waited below the museum's windows before all for left the museum on the waiting scooters at 9:38, headed in the direction of the Hôtel de Ville. 

Shortly after the incident CL Press posted a video of a motorcycle helmet which was one of several objects found with or underneath the abandoned cherry picker truck.  Taken into evidence, these items may allow for the identification of one or more of the robbers through DNA traces.

According to the press release issued by the  French Ministry of Culture, the eight stolen jewellery items are:

This tiara from the set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense;

This necklace from the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense;

An earring, one of a pair from the sapphire parure of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense;

This emerald necklace from the set of Marie-Louise;

This pair of emerald earrings from Marie-Louise's set.

This Reliquary brooch;

This tiara of Empress Eugenie;

And this large bodice bow of Empress Eugenie (brooch).

A ninth item, the Crown of Empress Eugénie de Montijo, set with numerous emeralds and diamonds and created by Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855, was dropped by the criminals during their escape and its condition is "under examination".

Immediately after the incident, the Louvre was shuttered for the day as the Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation in partnership with the Criminal Investigation Department's Anti-Banditism Brigade (BRB) with the support of the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC).   

Frances crown jewels have always had a tough go of it.  

Between September 11 and 16 in 1792, amid the chaotic events of the French Revolution, and days before the storming of the Bastille, a group of thieves staged a burglary over multiple nights, breaking into the poorly guarded Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (Crown Furniture Storehouse), a grand building on Place de la Concorde (then called Place Louis XV then Place de la Révolution) in Paris.  Over a series of days these accomplices helped themselves to diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies, many considered priceless due to their association with the French monarchy. Three of the most important pieces taken (some later recovered) were the Sancy Diamond, the Regent Diamond, and the Blue Diamond of the Crown (a large blue diamond some believe was later recut to become the Hope Diamond which is now housed at the Smithsonian, however, that theory remains unconfirmed). It was a revolutionary cultural property loss to which France never fully recovered.

Luckily, the Regent was found the following year, in 1792 which allowed Napoleon to display it on his coronation sword on December 2, 1804. 

After the revolutionary debacle, successive monarchies endeavoured to bring parts of the treasure back, but with only limited success.

Fast forward almost two centuries later and the Louvre’s standout jewel theft was an armed night-time raid, which, like today's daylight theft, impacted the Galerie d’Apollon.  On 16 December 1976, three masked burglars climbed a metal scaffolding set up by workers cleaning the facade of the former palace at dawn and assaulted two guards.  After entering the gallery they broke into a glass display case and made off with the diamond-studded ceremonial sword made in 1824 by Frederic Bapst for the coronation of King Charles X, leaving behind his stirrups and saddle.  

That piece has never been recovered. 

It is surreal to think that these stolen objects, symbols of empire, artistry, and craftsmanship, might now be lost forever.  Beyond their material worth, these jewels are part of Europe's collective heritage: tangible links to empires powerfully built and faded, a testament to French culture, and to her power.

The loss is not only France’s, but the world’s.

By:  Lynda Albertson


June 12, 2025

Thursday, June 12, 2025 - ,,,,, No comments

Crime Pays in Versailles: Bill Pallot’s Fake-Chair Scandal and Its Broader Lessons

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

November 22, 2024

Friday, November 22, 2024 - ,,,,, No comments

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


The Musée du Hiéron 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. 

February 1, 2023

Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - ,,,,,,,,, No comments

Ukraine very own, "Arsène Lupin" is sentenced to five years in French prison


In 2018 a painting Le Port de La Rochelle by French Neo-Impressionist painter Paul Signac was stolen from the Musée de Beaux-Arts in the city of Nancy, in north-east France.  The theft, which took place in broad daylight, involved at least three accomplices, one of whom removed the painting from the wall and then sliced the canvas away from its frame using a box-cutter.  The culprits then rolled the painting up, and walked out of the museum, deftly hiding the stolen painting under a raincoat one of the thieves were wearing.

At the time of the theft, the artwork was estimated to be worth more than one and a half million euros.

Flash forward to April 2019 when Kyiv police raided the home of a suspect allegedly linked to the murder of a jeweller named Serhii Kiselyov, shot dead in his car on March 5, 2019 in Kyiv in a daytime assassination-style killing.

As they searched the residence in the Ukrainian capital, this suspect informed them that there was a valuable painting hidden in a cupboard in the home, advising them to handle it carefully.  The painting turned out to be the stolen 1915 oil painting by Paul Signac.

Interrogated by officers, this suspect implicated Vadym Huzhva, a Ukrainian  collector and sometime art thief from Kharkiv, who at the time was already serving a prison sentence in Austria for art theft.  In that case, Huzhva was one of three well-dressed men in jackets and coats who, working in tandem, waltzed into the Dorotheum auction house in Vienna and stole Golfe, mer, falaises vertes by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in November 2018.  This stolen painting was worth some €120,000 and €160,000 at the time of its consignment. 

At the conclusion of his Austrian prison sentence, Huzhva was extradited to stand trial in France in June 2020, where he was held in pre-trial detention until his court case began on January 30th.  But not just for the stolen Signac artwork, but also the theft of several art works, including a second Renoir, Portrait d'une Jeune Fille Blonde.  This painting was taken on September 30, 2017 from the wall of a gallery in the Parisian auction l'Hôtel des Ventes de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines) operated by SGL Enchères/F. Laurent de Rummel where the artwork had been on display just prior to its auction.  

CCTV Image captures three thieves in the Dorotheum theft

Meanwhile, Le Port de La Rochelle was restituted by the Ukrainian authorities to the Musée de Beaux-Arts in September 2021. 

By the time Vadym Huzhva finally appeared for trial in France before the Specialized Interregional Court (Jirs) this week, an investigation entrusted to the SRPJ of Nancy and France's Office central de lutte contre le trafic de biens culturels (OCBC) had documented that this Ukrainian "Arsène Lupin" was responsible for a total of at least five thefts in France.  In addition to the Signac, and the second Renoir, Huzhva was also implicated in the thefts of a rare book with 12 gouaches by Russian artists stolen from the Hôtel Drouot auction house, the theft of another painting "Composition with Self-Portrait" by Giorgio De Chirico stolen on November 16, 2017 from the Fabrégat Museum in Béziers, and two stolen artworks by Eugène Boudin and Eugène Gallien-Laloux, taken from the Chateau de Versailles auction house in Versailles in 2018. 

A quick search of Ukrainian news outlets shows that Guzhva has also been implicated other art thefts in his home country, one of which involved a painting  stolen from the Odessa Art Museum on 21 June 2005, which was discovered by police rolled up and sealed in a bag, and stuffed under the seat of his Opel-Astra car in 2006.  And just like in this case, while appearing before the court, the defendant railed angrily against his prosecutors and his charges, claiming he was falsely accused and citing far-fetched conspiracies.  

Yet, despite being held in pretrial custody in Ukraine for several years, the Odessa Museum theft charges failed to stick, despite suspicions that Guzhva that he might be responsible for as many as two dozen museum thefts.

Back in France, prosecutors pointed to the fact that Guzhva's flights into the country coincided with the periods of each of the theft incidences occurred, as did his hotel reservations near each of the intended targets.  CCTV footage also revealed the same, or quite similar, modus operandi, and illustrated that the targets were often quite similar.  Artworks found on his phone, as well as the contact details for accomplices which matched descriptions in CCTV footage, also provided further evidence in the prosecution's favour. 

So, after just two days before the court, Vadym Huzhva was sentenced by the French judge to 5 years in prison.  The court also sentenced two of his known accomplices, tried in absentia, to three years each.  A fourth suspect, a woman, has not been publicly identified.

October 28, 2021

Thursday, October 28, 2021 - ,,, No comments

After 130 years, what (limited) cultural property is finally going home to Benin


Sometimes when a country fights for their cultural property it is not about the monetary value, but about its cultural significance. 

Below is a list of the twenty-six objects, referred to as the Béhanzin Treasury, once considered colonial spoils of war, which were taken during the second Franco-Dahomean war, and which are now after legislative action in France, finally going home to Benin.  

These objects will be transferred to the Ouidah Museum of History in Ouidah, Benin, before eventually going to their permanent home at the former location of the royal palaces of Abomey, a UNESCO world heritage site where Benin is building a museum. 

These objects illustrate that not everything worth fighting for has million-dollar pricetags at art auctions and galleries, and that what is of key importance is the very important historical, symbolic and protective value this material culture represents to the Beninese population. 

1. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.1 - An anthropomorphic statue of King Ghézo;

2. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.2 - An anthropomorphic statue of King Glèlè;

3. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.3 - An anthropomorphic statue of King Béhanzin;

4. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.4 - A door from the royal palace of Abomey;

5. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.5 - A door of the royal palace of Abomey;

6. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.6 - A door of the royal palace of Abomey;

7. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.7 - A door of the royal palace of Abomey;

8. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1893.45.8 - A royal seat;

9. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.1 - A recade (badge of authority) reserved for male soldiers of the blu battalion, composed only of foreigners;

10. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.2 - Royal calabashes scraped and engraved from Abomey, taken at war in the royal palaces;

11. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.3 - A portable altar aseñ hotagati;

12. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.4 - An Aseñ royal ante mortem portable altar of King Béhanzin;

13. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.5 - An Aseñ portable altar of the incomplete royal palace;

14. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.6 - An Aseñ portable altar of the incomplete royal palace;

15. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.7 - The throne of King Glèlè;

16. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.8 - The throne of King Ghézo (long called “Throne of King Béhanzin”);

17. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.9 - An Aseñ hotagati portable altar to the panther, ancestor of the royal families of Porto-Novo, Allada and Abomey;

18. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.10 - Fuseau;

19. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.11 - A loom;

20. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.12 - A pair of soldier's pants;

21. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.13 - A Katakle tripod seat on which the king rested his feet;

22. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.14 - A man's tunic;

23. Inventory number of the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac: 71.1895.16.15 - A Recade (badge of authority) reserved for male soldiers of the blu battalion, composed only of foreigners;

24. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.16 - A Recade reserved for male soldiers of the blu battalion, composed only of foreigners;

25. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.17 - An Aseñ portable altar of the incomplete royal palace;

26. Inventory number of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum: 71.1895.16.18 - A leather bag.

130 years for a pair of pants and a tunic, or a wooden thrown.  Let that sink in for a moment when you try to "value" an object in the future. 

June 23, 2020

Tuesday, June 23, 2020 - ,,,,, No comments

The Cost of Trinkets: France detains five art market actors in relation to a network believed to be trafficking in conflict antiquities


Between Monday and Tuesday, law enforcement authorities in France have detained five individuals, bringing them in for questioning in relation to a network law enforcement believes to be involved in the trafficking in antiquities from conflict, and post-conflict, countries that have subsequently been laundered onto the French ancient art market.  These detentions come following a lengthy investigation which began in July 2018 and has been carried out by France's Central Office to Combat Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) and the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF).  Parts of the investigation were also coordinated with the Investigative Judge of the JUNALCO (National Jurisdiction Against Organised Crime) and the Paris prosecutor's office.  

Among those arrested are one director and one in-house art expert affiliated with Pierre Bergé & Associés, a French auction house that specialises in modern and contemporary art, design, photography, editions, and antiquities. The three remaining arrestees have been reported to be: a former curator, who once worked at the Musée du Louvre, a renowned left bank Parisian gallery owner,  and another art dealer.  

While none of the people taken into custody this week have been named, this is not the first time that Pierre Bergé' has come to the attention of illicit trafficking researchers.  Christophe Kunicki, who brokered the sale of the looted Mummiform Coffin inscribed in the name of Nedjemankh to the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been listed in Pierre Bergé's catalogs as their archaeology expert as far back as 28 March 2008.  Likewise, French archaeologists have identified that Pierre Bergé & Associés is one of three companies who have sold suspect deities and funeral portraits originating from Cyrene, the ancient Greek and later Roman city near present-day Shahhat in Libya.  These pieces came to maket via the three firms through Hôtel Drouot auction house in Paris between 2007 and 2015.  

The five detainees potentially face charges ranging from receipt of stolen goods, money laundering, forgery and fraud related to antiquities illegally removed from countries including Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.  This case underscores once again that the art market and armed conflict are grimly connected through the art market's profit from the laundering and sale of conflict antiquities.  

And while these individuals may or may not go to jail, ancient art buyers are not getting the message that their purchase of such antiquities serves to incentivize those in the supply chain and enables war in countries of conflict.  By buying conflict antiquities without concern for the object's licit origin, they, as well as the looters, middlemen, and elegant auction houses, each play a role in perpetuating crime in un marché avec des fruits bien pourris (a market with rotten fruit).

By: Lynda Albertson

November 4, 2019

Monday, November 04, 2019 - ,, No comments

The cathedral of Oloron-Sainte-Marie was attacked in a smash and grab


In the early morning of November 4th, robbers committed a smash and grab robbery at the Cathedral Sainte-Marie d'Oloron located in the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.  Awakened to the sounds of a Viking-inspired battering ram, nearby neighbors reported the ruckus to the local gendarmes who responded quickly, but not before the thieves had made their getaway.


Upon arrival, law enforcement discovered that the culprits had used a tree trunk mounted onto a vehicle, to break open a small door to the right of the cathedral's main entrance.  Clergy from the 12th century UNESCO World Heritage Site have stated that the culprits then sawed through metal bars and broke into storage cabinetry, taking only things they could easily and quickly carry such as ciboriums, chalices, and cruets.  The accomplices, believed to be three men, abandoned the car used to break their way into the church, leaving the crime scene in a second vehicle.  

Given the tools required to cut through metal bars and the time it would take to mount something on to an automobile to break through a solid door, it appears that the robbers were well prepared and knew precisely what they wanted to take and how they could gain entry into the historic church.


This morning, Hervé Lucbéreilh, the mayor of Oloron, spoke publicly about the attack. 


By: Vittoria Ricci

September 18, 2019

Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - ,,,,,,, No comments

Mexican Foreign Ministry urges French auction house Millon (in Paris) to halt an auction of pre-Columbian art

Image Credit: Millon Drouot
The Mexican government, through its Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and its Ministry of Culture, have formally challenged the auctioning of 95 pieces of pre-Hispanic origin.  In doing so, they are calling upon French auction house Millon Drouot to halt its sale of the Manichak and Jean Aurance Collection of Pre-Columbian art which is scheduled to take place today and includes some 130 pre-Columbian art objects.  

During a press conference, the Mexican Ambassador to France, Juan Manuel Gómez-Robledo, indicated that a concern was lodged on September 12, 2019 by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, the competent authority in the matter asking that the auction be cancelled and that the objects in the collection contested restituted to the country. 

Raising their concerns about the provenance of the pieces, the Mexican authorities allege that some of the artifacts appear to have been stolen and/or illegally exported. Concerned with their status, María del Socorro Villarreal Escárrega, national coordinator of legal affairs for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History stated that the INAH has filed a corresponding complaint with the Prosecutor's Office General of the Republic, collaborating with diplomatic authorities in order to seek the restitution of the objects. 


In their formal statement, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry stated that 95 of the 120 objects up for auction appear to be from early Mesoamerican complex civilizations such as the Olmec, which inhabited the Gulf Coast territory of Mexico extending inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, from 1600 BCE until 350 BCE and the Maya who assimilated Olmec influences into the emerging the city-states of the Maya civilization.  

According to the Millon catalog, and the Antiques Trade Gazette collectors Manichek and Jean Aurance purchased their first pre-Columbian artwork in 1963 from the French dealer Olivier le Corneur who operated Galerie Le Corneur-Roudillon.  They continued purchasing tribal art  for their Art Deco lakeside home in Vésinet from le Corneur, Henri Kamer, Pierre Langlois, René Rasmussen and Charles Ratton.  Some of those pieces seem to have passed through Los Angeles art dealer Earl Stendahl.

Earlier last week Guatemala confirmed that following their own formal protests on August 28, 2019 Millon had suspended the sale, at least for a while, of one of the pre-Hispanic pieces up for auction.


Lot 55 -  A stone relief depicting the Spearthrower Owl, was discovered by Teobert Maler in 1899 and dates to 700 CE.  It was stolen from the powerful city-state of Piedras Negras in the remote northwest area of the Department of Petén in Guatemala's Sierra del Lacandón in the 1960s.

Drawing from CMHI
v. 9-1.
According to UT-Austin archaeologist and Mesoamerican art historian and epigrapher, Dr. David Stuart, who first reported (in English) about Guatemala's Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes' efforts  to stop the sale in late August, the disputed stolen relief is a portion of Stela 9 found by Teobert Maler at the ruins if Piedras Negras in 1899 on the large terrace to the east of Structure J-3, and originally placed between Stelae 10 and 40.

Allowing time for the seller, the State of Guatemala and Millon to discuss the contested object and the legality of the sale in France, Drouot Paris issued the following comment on Twitter, hinting that the sale was a legitimate one, despite the crime of removing it from the territory.
In cases of property dispute, French law, articles 2274 and 2262 of the Civil Code, tend to prefer the bona fide purchaser, in their purchase of a stolen or misappropriated movable object over that of the victim, which in this circumstance is Guatemala and Mexico.   French Law provides that title can be obtained by a good faith purchaser by way of prescription after 30 years.

As of the writing of this article, neither the consignor nor Millon has not announced a response to the Mexican government's request. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

February 23, 2018

Friday, February 23, 2018 - ,,,, No comments

Recovered: "Les Choristes" by Edgar Degas

Image Credit:  INTERPOL Works of Art Database
Stolen from the Musée Cantini in Marseille, France, on Thursday, December 31, 2009, a pastel by 19th century Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas titled "Les Choristes" (also referred to as Les Figurants) has been recovered. 

At the time of the theft, investigators found no apparent signs of a break-in and reported that the 27cm by 32cm pastel had simply been unfastened from the wall where it was being displayed while on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris for an exhibition showcasing twenty works by the famous artist. 

Hidden in the luggage compartment of a bus in Seine-et-Marne, the artwork was recovered by agents of the Marne-la-Vallée customs brigade on February 16, 2018 during a routine customs check in the area of ​​Ferrieres which borders the A4 motorway. No passengers on board the bus have admitted to placing it there.

 checked a bus stationed on the Ferrières-en-Brie motorway in Seine-et-Marne.
Even as the art work was still undergoing authentication, the official account of the French Customs Info Customs Service felt confident they have a match.

In a public announcement issued today, Françoise Nyssen, the French Minister of Culture, informed the public that the recovered Degas pastel "Les Choristes"  will be given a special place in the future exhibition Degas at the Opera scheduled at the Musée d'Orsay from September 23, 2019 through January 19, 2020.



November 25, 2017

Saturday, November 25, 2017 - ,,, No comments

Theft: Musée des Beaux-arts de Béziers


A self-portrait by Giorgio de Chirico, founder of the scuola metafisica art movement, titled "Composizione con autoritratto (Composition with self-portrait)" has been stolen. The artwork was cut from its frame in the top floor  Salle Jean Moulin sometime during museum opening hours during the afternoon of November 16, 2017.

"Composition with Self-Portrait" - 1926
60.8 cm by 50.2 cm
By: Giorgio di Chirico
Created in 1926 by de Chirico, the painting was originally part of the collection of French Resistance hero Jean Moulin and had been donated to the museum by Moulin's sister, along with other artworks.  It had been on display at the Hôtel Fabregat in Beziers as part of the Musée des Beaux Arts collection in Southern France.

Law enforcement authorities in Montpellier have advised that one of the two guards on duty noticed the empty frame while making closing rounds before setting the museum's alarms for the evening.  The artwork had been sliced from its frame and likely rolled up and hidden under a coat or other clothing by the thief.  The museum reported that there were only two guards on duty and that the gallery is not equipped with CCTV surveillance cameras.  

Stealing masterpieces is a terrible business, especially a painting as famous as a de Chirico. Well-documented paintings such as this would be easy to identify and absolutely impossible to fence.  This means the theft was either a naïf, who stole the painting with few plans beyond the theft itself, or a pro "theft to order" with a buyer already in mind. 



October 6, 2017

Friday, October 06, 2017 - ,,, No comments

Theft: Pierre-Auguste Renoir "Portrait d'une Jeune Fille Blonde"

Image Left: Pierre-Auguste Renoir self Portrait
Image Right: Stolen "Portrait d'une jeune fille blonde" 
Image Credit: La Gazette Drouot
Painting: Portrait d'une Jeune Fille Blonde
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Medium: oil on canvas with dimensions of 14 cm by 12.2 cm
Identifying items: AR initials in the top left of the painting.  Frame labeling: Chaussegros (Vichy), and a canvas numbering "022"
Stolen: September 30, 2017
Location of Theft: l'Hôtel des Ventes de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines)
13, rue Thiers, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France

The painting was taken, unnoticed, from the wall of a gallery the Parisian auction l'Hôtel des Ventes de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines) operated by SGL Enchères/F. Laurent de Rummel where the artwork had been on display just prior to its auction.  

Image Credit:  Online Auction Catalog http://www.sgl-encheres.com/
The thief purportedly unhooked the painting and left the premises without being seen.  Value details can be seen in the screen capture from the auctioneers website above. 







July 15, 2015

Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - ,,,,, No comments

Columnist Noah Charney on “Napoleon: Emperor of Art Theft” in "Lessons from the History of Art Crime" in the Spring 2015 issue of The Journal of Art Crime

In his regular column "Lessons from the History of Art Crime" Noah Charney writes on “Napoleon: Emperor of Art Theft” in the Spring 2015 issue of The Journal of Art Crime, edited by Charney (with Marc Balcells and Christos Tsirogiannis) and published by ARCA:
When Citizen Wicar, one of the key members of the art theft division of Napoleon's army, died in 1843, he bequeathed 1436 artworks as a gift to his birthplace, the city of Lille. Though most were works on papers (prints and drawings), this is an astonishing number. But there are two more facts about this bit of historical trivia that make it that much more surprising. First, almost all of these works had been stolen by him, personally, over the course of his service to the Napoleonic Army, in which he and several other officers were charged with selecting, removing, boxing up and shipping back to Paris art from the collection of those vanquished by la Grande Armee. Stealing over a thousand artworks is no small feat for a single person, even when with the sort of unrestricted access his position with the army allowed. Impressive enough, until we reach the second fact: Citizen Wicar had already sold most of the art he had stolen over the course of his post-war life, but still had those thousand odd pieces left over, to bequeath. In terms of quality, Citizen Wicar, who would serve as Keeper of Antiquities at the Louvre Museum, is the most prolific art thief in history. But it is his boss, Napoleon Bonaparte, who is often crowned with that title.
Noah Charney holds Masters degrees in art history from The Courtauld Institute and University of Cambridge, and a PhD from University of Ljubljana. He is Adjunct Professor of Art History at the American University of Rome, a Visiting Lecturer for Brown University abroad programs, and is the founder of ARCA, the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, a non-profit research group on issues of art crimes. Charney is the author of numerous academic and popular articles, including a regular column in ArtInfo called “The Secret History of Art” and a weekly interview series in The Daily Beast called “How I Write.” His first novel, The Art Thief (Atria 2007), is currently translated into seventeen languages and is a best seller in five countries. He is the editor of an academic essay collection entitled Art & Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art World (Praeger 2009) and the Museum Time series of guides to museums in Spain (Planeta 2010). His is author of a critically acclaimed work of non-fiction, Stealing the Mystic Lamb: the True History of the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece (PublicAffairs 2011), which is a best seller in two countries. His latest book is The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World’s Most Famous Painting (ARCA Publications 2011). Upcoming books include The Art of Forgery (Phaidon 2015), The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art (Norton 2015), and Art Crime: Terrorists, Tomb Raiders, Forgers and Thieves, an edited collection of essays on art crime (Palgrave 2014). 

Here's a link to ARCA's website about access to The Journal of Art Crime.

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)