Welcome to ARCA’s PG Cert Alumni Spotlight Series, a collection of in-depth Q&A interviews conducted by Edgar Tijhuis*, highlighting the professional journeys, achievements, and ongoing contributions of graduates from ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Programs in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection. Through these conversations, we aim to showcase the diverse paths our alumni have taken—across academia, law enforcement, museums, research, policy, and the cultural heritage sector—and to share the insights, motivations, and experiences that continue to shape their work in safeguarding the world’s shared artistic legacy.

My undergraduate degrees are in History of Art and International Relations while my graduate degree is in Art Business. However, my life took a slightly different turn and I did not pursue a career in my chosen fields of study. After 11 years in high-end sales and logistics, I decided that my life would not be complete if I do not pursue my initial passion of combining History of Art, International Relations and Art Market Studies. I just had to figure out how to do it.

I got in touch with the late Charley Hill, the former Scotland Yard Art and Antiques Unit undercover officer, then an art detective as well as specialist advisor and mentor on my graduate degree, MA Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. Charley was delighted to help, offering his inimitable advice and support. He urged me to get in touch with all the contacts I made during my MA studies and reassured me that not all is lost despite the long hiatus but that it would be hard work.

It was a chance encounter at the 2014 Cultural Heritage Conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where I noticed that a person sitting next to me was Richard “Dick” Ellis, the founder of the Scotland Yard Art and Antiques Unit, then a private art investigator and a UK government advisor as well as an instructor on the ARCA Postgraduate Program. Dick was one of the “primary sources” I contacted on Charley’s recommendation while investigating the fate of stolen masterpieces from public collections in the United Kingdom for my MA dissertation. We chatted and commented on the conference presentations, and I reminded Dick how helpful and insightful the interview he gave me was in 2001. Dick suggested that we meet for lunch in the following few weeks. He told me about the ARCA Postgraduate Program urging me to consider it as it was, and still is, the unique program that could help me “refresh” my expertise and professional network in order to get back into the fray. As they say, the rest is history.

The visit to the necropolis of Banditaccia at Cerveteri at the beginning of the program had a lasting impact on me because I realised that I had made a good decision in terms of my future career. The study trip was led by Stefano Alessandrini, an ARCA instructor as well as head of Italy's Archaeological Group and an adviser to the Ministry of Culture and the Advocate General of Italy on the recovery of looted antiquities. Stefano’s passion for the Etruscan civilisation and unequalled encyclopaedic knowledge of archaeology was generously shared with us. I realised that this niche field is not just a potential career option, it is a calling which embodies passion and purpose.

Equally, the course Provenance Research Methodology – Theory and Practice taught by Marc Masurovsky, an economic plunder historian and co-founder of Holocaust Art Restitution Project, was instrumental in shaping my current career path where I realised that my academic background would be a perfect fit to the multidisciplinary approach in provenance research that Marc is adamant about. This is where I honed my interest in the intersection of my chosen fields of study, that is the ethical and legal treatment of cultural objects across borders (“space and time!”) as a reflection of social, economic and political changes under the motto “give me an object and I will tell you its story.” Most importantly, I was finally aligned with my personal experiences of war, loss, plunder, cultural destruction, and this was a chance to channel it positively.

What was your favourite course or topic, and why did it stand out?

It would be difficult to isolate one favourite course or topic! The courses that had the most impact on me professionally and personally are Provenance Research Theory and Practice taught by Marc Masurovsky; Criminology taught by Edgar Tijhuis (and Marc Balcells);  Museum Security taught by the late Dick Drent (now taught by Ibrahim Bulut), and last but not least Fine Art Policing taught by Dick Ellis. Each course was instrumental in encouraging us to think analytically and outside the box as well as including details of case studies that have not yet been published.

The Provenance Research course was formative because it has geared my career path to what it is now while reiterating the importance of history in order to understand the present issues –  history indeed is our greatest teacher! The Criminology course shed light to why certain individuals commit recidivist cultural crimes, what drives them and builds networks around them. The Museum Security course deepened my comprehension of the efforts and challenges that cultural institutions face as custodians of our heritage. The Art Policing course illuminated the challenges of the intersection of public and private policing as well as their respective recovery efforts. Having these courses taught by both practitioners and academics enabled me to learn first-hand from instructors involved in the discussed cases while being encouraged to ask questions deepened my understanding of each topic and case study.

I have been based in London since 1995 and I am enamoured of the cultural melting pot that this great city represents. The international nature of the ARCA program was a deal breaker for me especially considering that after fleeing Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s war, I lived in Tunisia, Libya, and Malta, As an undergraduate student, I attended study abroad programs that took me to Cuba, China and Hong Kong as well as Russia. In the context of ARCA, the ability to learn directly from our American, Italian, Iraqi, Syrian and Spanish peers, as well as our, American, British, Dutch and Italian instructors, to name but a few, and get their own perspectives on some of the pertinent cultural issues and jurisdictional variations is priceless and unparalleled. Not to mention the fun get-togethers where we shared our regional culinary delicacies and humour while learning about our national and personal histories even more.

Did the program change or shape your career path? If so, how? 

Absolutely! The program has changed my career path, and my life, significantly and goes down as one of the most formative experiences. I am convinced that I would not have been able to make a career change without it. On the suggestion of Lynda Albertson, ARCA’s CEO, I attended the 2017 Art Crime Conference before committing to the full program. I met numerous professionals and started collaborating with some of them. It was obvious that the faculty, the student body as well as the annual conference attendees I met at ARCA represent a close-knit professional community where I made useful contacts and felt welcome even as a novice.

After the completion of the program in 2018, my professional connections expanded and resulted in fantastic international projects, both pro-bono and paid work. I strongly believe that I would not be where I am now, working alongside some of the greatest and most passionate professionals in the world who have also become lifelong friends.

My ARCA dissertation, under the insistence as well as unrivalled support and patience of Dick Ellis to “produce something original”, allowed me to rediscover my own personal and national history by researching the art plunder and restitution during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This effort was not in vain because I gained invaluable knowledge and developed important professional networks in the region. The edited and updated version of this topic was published under the encouragement of Professor Saskia Hufnagel as “Recovery and Restitution of Plundered Cultural Property in Bosnia and Herzegovina”  In M.D.Fabiani, K. Burmon, & S. Hufnagel (Eds), Cultural Property Crime and the Law: Legal Approaches to Protection, Repatriation, and Countering Illicit Trade, by Routledge in May 2024. 

It is thanks to the ARCA program that I was hired by Marc Masurovsky to work on the Pilot Project – The Fate of the AdolpheSchloss Collection in 2020 and 2021. Together with Marc and our colleague Claudia Hofstee, I have continued to work on the Schloss Collection as a labour of love after the end of the project. These endeavours have led to becoming a Board Director at Holocaust Art Restitution Project and working with The Ciric LawFirm, PLLC in New York City. When I think of ARCA’s long-term impact on my life, Hegel’s famous quote comes to mind: “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”

What was it like to live and study in Amelia, Italy?

I have been visiting Italy for a very long time and it has always felt like home because I  spent my childhood on the other side of the Adriatic coast and my early adulthood on the other side of the Mediterranean in countries with strong Italian influence. Culturally, I have always felt a close affinity to the Italian way of life so La Dolce Vita was much welcome. Amelia has many charms – you become local in no time due to its size; it is rural and picturesque; you can enjoy some of best fresh produce;  it is quaint and steeped in history, and the locals are friendly and welcoming. The food is just superb! 

One has to appreciate Amelia’s size and its proximity to other cities, such as Orvieto or the metropolis of Rome. In Amelia, one can just roll down or up Via della Repubblica and get to class in 5-20 minutes, depending where one’s lodgings are situated. It wins on every level especially if one considers battling the ever-infuriating summer traffic and transport strikes in Rome or London! Having said that, there is plenty of time to complete all the reading, assignments and presentations due to the lack of unnecessary distractions. The transport links are excellent for any exploration and breaks.

Can you share a memorable interaction you had with faculty, guest speakers, or fellow students?

Memorable interactions with students and faculty are manyfold. We had many a heated discussion in the classroom that would spill into a local bar or the Pasticceria Russo about the criminogenic nature of art crime, the colonial legacy of cultural property and what it means to be a “universal museum” today.

In the Museum Security course, our instructor asked us to share a profound personal experience in utmost confidence in order to build trust between us. This was a formidable exercise because our perception of each other changed and it made us appreciate each other’s experiences beyond the program curriculum.

One cannot forget the countless aperitivos and dinners shared amongst the fellow students and faculty after each milestone, whether it is a presentation or completion of a course – all are still deeply ingrained in my memory.

What advice would you give to someone considering applying for the 2026 session?

My advice would be to have a clear idea of what you want to take away from the program and target your professional and personal interests and ambitions. It is important to talk to your instructors and connect with them – they are there to help you every step of the way. The ARCA connections and networks can become a professional lifeline. If opting to do the full Postgraduate Program, you will have ten weeks to do the reading, coursework and research including presentations, essays and making an impression –  it is up to you to get it done. This is a professional development program and you are in charge of what you wish to accomplish.

On the lighter note, the local bread could be used as a weapon or a door stop due to its hard texture. And, of course, bring plenty of insect repellent, the Umbrian pappataci are relentless!

How has your understanding of art crime evolved since completing the program?

My understanding of art crime since the program has evolved significantly especially in terms of understanding the international jurisprudence and jurisdictional differences, complex networks in international antiquities trafficking as well as the laborious and painstaking efforts required to recover stolen cultural property. It is impossible to visit any cultural institution and look at its displays without considering the security conditions such as security cameras, motion sensors, smoke alarms or quality of the protective cases. Equally, it is difficult to attend an exhibition or look at a museum display without paying attention to its signage and wording ­– is the story of plunder told or swept under the carpet, was the object “appropriated” or was it a part of the partage agreement, and what do they mean by “acquired”? The program has equipped me with analytical tools and has fed my inquisitive intellectual curiosity. Needless to say, my professional and social interactions are never a dead-end.

One should join ARCA’s program if one wants to broaden their understanding of the importance of cultural heritage protection and to make a difference in art crime prevention ensuring the long-lasting impact on humankind in the form of justice being served regardless of the passage of time for the generations to come.

About Saida Hasanagic 

Saida Hasanagic, MA, is an art historian based in London, England. She is an independent scholar specialising in provenance research, art crime and its prevention from perspectives of art history, art market studies and international relations. Saida worked as a provenance researcher and data analyst for the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project Foundation, Berlin on The Pilot Project – The Fate of the Adolphe Schloss Collection. She is affiliated with Holocaust Art Restitution Project and The Ciric Law Firm, PLLC in the USA. Her main areas of research are European Modernism, the Second World War art plunder and restitution, and cultural crimes committed in conflicts since 1945, notably in the former Yugoslavia with focus on spoliation, recovery and restitution of cultural property in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

📌 ARCA Postgraduate Certificate Programmes (Italy | Summer 2026)

• Post Lauream I (22 May – 23 June 2026): PG Cert in Art & Antiquities Crime

• Post Lauream II (26 June – 26 July 2026): PG Cert in Provenance, Acquisition & Interpretation of Cultural Property

➡️ Take one track—or combine both in a single summer.

Last Fall, the French Ministry of Culture took a notable step toward strengthening accountability in the museum sector by preparing a comprehensive provenance research guide for public institutions titled: Handbook for provenance research

This regulatory gap raises a pointed question: why are American taxpayers left exposed to subsidising donations of artworks that may later be shown to have been stolen or illegally exported?

The issue is not hypothetical.  When museums accept donations of art with incomplete or problematic ownership histories, their donors often benefit from substantial tax deductions based on the object's appraised value.  If those same objects are later seized or relinquished due to their problematic origin, the financial risk has already been absorbed by the American public.  In effect, its US taxpayers who have underwritten both the acquisition and the reputational fallout, while the institutions themselves face few standardised federal requirements requiring them to demonstrate that adequate provenance research was conducted prior to accepting a gifted work of art.

In the U.S., the primary federal touchpoint for donated artworks is the Internal Revenue Service, which evaluates donations almost exclusively through the lens of valuation and tax deductibility.  The IRS requires donors to substantiate fair market value and complete appraisal documentation, but it does not meaningfully assess whether an object was lawfully exported, ethically acquired, or free from claims by source countries.  As a result, the legal status of an artwork’s past is often treated as peripheral, so long as its monetary value can be justified.

France’s model suggests a different path, one in which government agencies acknowledge that provenance research is not merely an internal museum matter but a public accountability issue.  By issuing a government-backed guide, the state is taking the first steps of establishing a baseline for responsible stewardship, one which creates clearer expectations for institutions that operate with public support. Such guidance does not eliminate complex provenance questions, but it does reduce ambiguity and by doing so strengthens institutional accountability going forward. 

Advocates of due diligence in US museums can argue that similar federal guidelines in America could help protect cultural heritage, improve public confidence, and help ensure that charitable tax policies are not inadvertently rewarding the circulation of looted or illicit material.

As international scrutiny of museum collections continues to grow, the absence of U.S. federal provenance standards is increasingly difficult to justify.  France has demonstrated that government leadership in this area is both possible and practical. Whether the United States will choose to follow suit, and in doing so safeguard both cultural heritage and public funds, remains an open and increasingly urgent question.

In 2009, when ARCA started the first of its kind, interdisciplinary, approach to the scholarly study of art crime, no one was being trained to look closely at the  underbelly of the art world.   Noticing that gap, represented a unique opportunity for the association, to provide  individuals interested in intensive training in a structured and academically diverse format, a summer-long postgraduate program developed  around the study of the dynamics, strategies, objectives and modus operandi of criminals and criminal organisations who commit a variety of art crimes.    

Turn on the news (or followARCA's art crime blog) and you will see over and over again examples of suspect acquisitions, museum thefts, forgeries, antiquities looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods.  Intentional heritage destruction during armed conflict, once a modern-day rarity, now affects multiple countries and adds to regional instability in many areas of the globe.  

Looted art, both ancient and Holocaust-related, continues to find its way into the prestigious galleries of respected institutions, while auction houses and dealers continue to be less than adept at distinguishing smuggled and stolen art, from art with a clean provenance. Thus making dealing with art crime an unrelenting problem and one without any easy solution.

Taken incident by incident, it is difficult to see the impact and implications of art crime as a global concern, but when studied across disciplines, looking at the gaps of legal instruments, country to country, one begins to have a clearer picture of the significance of the problem and its impact on the world's collective patrimony.

The world's cultural heritage is an invaluable legacy and its protection is integral to our future. 

Since 2009, other short and long programs have come and gone, and yet, ARCA remains, the longest running, and most comprehensive programming of its kind. 

Here are 11 reasons why you should consider joining us this summer in Amelia, Italy for ARCA's 13th edition of our professional development program. 

At its foundation, ARCA's summer-long program in Italy draws upon the overlapping and complementary expertise of international thought-leaders on the topic of art crime – all practitioners and leading scholars who actively work in the sector. 

In 2023, participants of the program will receive 220+ hours of instruction from a range of experts actively committed to combatting art crime from a variety of different angles.

One summer, eleven courses.

For more information please see ARCA's website here.

To request further information or to receive a 2024 prospectus and application materials, please email:

education (at) artcrimeresearch.org

Apulian vases Antikensammlung Berlin - Accession no. 1984.39-59

Anyone who admires the moveable heritage of Magna Graecia and Apulian red-figure artefacts in particular, and who has visited the Altes Museum located on Berlin's Museum Island will likely have come across "their" phenomenal set of grave artefacts dating back to the 4th century BCE.  Extremely carefully executed and very elegant, the grouping are housed together in one extremely large glass showcase.  The so-called Phrixos crater, a volute crater with mask handles and the Rhesos crater, a high volute crater with three-wheel handles has been attributed to the Darius painter.  The Persephone crater, a volute crater with spiral handles, the Gigantomachie crater, a volute crater with mask handles and the Priamiden-Krater are ascribed to the painter of the Underworld.  Two other volute craters with mask handles are attributed to the Loebbecke painter and the painter from Copenhagen,

What makes this group spectacularly surprising is not that these strikingly beautiful artefacts are believed to possibly represent a single burial grouping, used to furnish a rich chamber tomb north of Taranto, Italy, but rather, that at the time of their purchase, no one seemed even a smidge concerned about the improbability of their purported provenance. Or, that years later, they continue to be displayed in Germany, and not in Italy, despite longstanding proof, now two decades old, that demonstrate their likely illicit origins. 

In the late 1980s, taking Christoph Leon, an Austrian archaeologist-turned-dealer living in Basel at his word, the director of the Berlin archaeological museum (at the time located in West Germany), Wolf Dieter Heilmayer, purchased the grouping of artefacts while completely ignoring the red flags in Leon's implausible story.  Despite having no proof whatsoever, beyond the word of the restorer, Fiorella Cottier-Angeli, who relayed that she had put the vases back together and they had been found in fragments in very old chests belonging to a Swiss family named Cramer, and had reached Geneva "in the nineteenth century," Heilmayer quickly shelled out 3 million marks without demanding any substantiating proof that the artefacts he was purchasing had, in fact, left Italy and entered into Swiss territory before Italy's law n.364 of 1909, entered into force.

Likewise, neither Wolf Dieter Heilmayer, nor Luca Giuliani, curator of the German archaeological museum at the time, seemed interested in questioning the flimsy backstory of how such a large grouping of funerary artefacts could have ended up smashed into bits and stashed into said trunks.  

Did the purported Cramer family have all their ancient treasures lined up on one overloaded shelf that at some point in history came crashing down?  And did said nineteenth century family conveniently have the foresight to stow each and every swept up fragment into trunks in the hopes that years later,  someone like Ms. Cottier-Angeli might put them all back together again like some precious group of Apulian Humpty Dumpties? 

Flash forward to September 13, 1995 when alarm bells really sounded.  

On that date, Swiss authorities notified Giacomo Medici that they would execute a search warrant at his storage facilities/office of Editions Services located on the fourth floor of the Ports Francs & Entrepôts de Genève, specifically Corridor 17, Room 23.  There, a search party consisting of a Swiss magistrate, three Swiss police, headed by an inspector, three Carabinieri TPC officers, an official photographer, and the deputy director of the Ports Francs & Entrepôts de Genève seized and documented contradictory evidence to the provenance story provided for the Berlin tomb-group artefacts.  

Carefully recorded by Medici were three sets of Polaroid images, depicting four of the artefacts purchased earlier by Heilmayer for the German museum's collection:

one grouping of fifteen photographs,

one grouping of six photographs,

and one grouping of two photographs.

The preponderance of this evidence seems to contradict the fabricated provenance given to the museum, which made no mention of the antiquities dealer who at that point found himself embroiled in a complex investigation by the Swiss and Italian authorities. 

Jumping forward to the last two years.  

On 11 October 2021, Alessandro Arturi, the judge of the preliminary investigations at the Court of Rome, ordered the confiscation of all 21 of the Berlin museum's tomb-group artefacts sold by Leon.  In his ruling Arturi, cited Jacques Chamay, at the time director of the archaeological museum in Geneva (who displayed the vases at the time of they were offered for purchase), and Fiorella Cottier Angeli's well known and fully established complicity with the by now-convicted antiquities dealer Giacomo Medici.  And in describing the photographic evidence in the seized Medici archive, the judge spelt out clearly that the Polaroids in the archive depict four of the craters in the Berlin museum "first in the condition of mere fragments soaked in earth, then in the subsequent phases of restoration, up to their current integral recomposition." 

Which leads me to the next question...

Dr. David Gill has been writing about his concerns regarding these vases for years, see articles here and here. The Italian authorities have thoroughly researched their problematic provenance and have documented evidence suggesting they were extracted illegally from Italian soil and exported without the benefit of an export license to Switzerland. All of which begs the question of why, a quarter of a century later, Italy has needed to resort to a court ruling, to put pressure on Germany to get on board and consider relinquishing the Apulian funeral pieces. 

What is known is that the Italian Ministry of Justice, perhaps having lost patience, has launched an international rogatory, to which Germany has yet to formally reply. 

At the time of his arrest, on August 6th,  Sadigh's warrant listed a host of alleged crimes including:

Sadigh also admitted to manipulating his gallery's satisfaction ratings on ratings platforms, by having contacts post false positive reviews as well as hiring a specialised reputational defence firm to manipulate Google's ratings so that negative comments from bilked clients complaining about their purchases or that Sadigh Gallery was a font of fakery were harder for the average Joe to find. 

In our previous article, we posited the assembly-line nature of Sadigh's fakes, which he admitted to in his court hearing.  The dealer openly admitted that he aged modern reproductions to make them appear plausibly authentic, by adding layers of paint, grime, and chemicals to their surfaces. 

Having been caught red-handed and having admitted to crimes that stretched for decades, the Manhattan District Attorney's office, through their Antiquities Trafficking Unit, filed what some might see as a relatively lenient sentencing memorandum.  Citing Sadigh as a first offender, the District Attorney's Office recommended five years probation and a ban on businesses related to the antiquities or reproductions trade.  

While some of the general public are angry that the prosecutor didn't recommend jail time, given that he has likely ripped off hundreds or thousands of people, others have commented that they were happy that the dealer was selling fakes rather than plundering actual archaeological sites to fill his client's burgeoning demands. 

Here at ARCA were are more sanguine. 

The Jewish Museum’s current exhibition Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art is dedicated to the art objects coveted by some of history’s greatest villains: the Nazi regime. Walking into the museum lobby on a cloudy Saturday afternoon (admission is free on the Jewish Sabbath), I found myself at the end of a long line awaiting entry into the exhibition space.  Surrounded by groups of all ages and backgrounds, we waited in an orderly fashion, taunted by the glimpse of a large Franz Marc canvas hanging just beyond the glass doors.

Image Credit: Jewish Museum

Once granted entry into the exhibition space, the dramatically lit gallery introduces viewers to the idea of an artwork’s biography, not just its creator, but the journey the physical item takes throughout its existence from creation to owners, to looters, to restitution. Following the trajectory of curation, visitors are given a preliminary introduction to the destruction and sacrifice that arose from the Nazi’s systematic plunder of cultural objects. The wall texts and audio guide address topics ranging from the experiences of “degenerate” artist’s to Rose Valland’s valiant efforts working for the Nazis at the Jeu de Paume to the Jewish Museum’s own role in safeguarding the orphaned Judaica of the Danzig Collection. 

In support of this narrative, many of the artworks on display are presented with wall texts that offer a paragraph of art historical analysis followed by a brief description of how the artwork was looted and restituted. Other items on display, such as August Sander’s photographic portraits of his Jewish neighbors seeking to escape persecution, and a concentration camp ledger recording the names of thousands who perished at the hands of the Nazis.  This sobering reminder of the context of this exhibition adds an extra layer of gravitas to the exhibited art objects.  Of the 3478 human beings recorded in this single ledger, only 11 survived. Viewers are not just reading fantastical stories or art historical analyses. They are witnessing the afterlife of the attempted annihilation of Jewish culture and faith. 

Max Pechstein’s Landscape (Nudes in a Landscape), 1912

The exhibition culminates with a display of contemporary works by artists Maria Eichhorn, Hadar Gad, Dor Guex, and Lisa Oppenheim. Each of the aforementioned artists seeks to shed light on the enduring legacy and ramifications of Nazi plundering while simultaneously shedding light on restitution efforts. Maria Eichhorn even put together a dossier of philosopher Hannah Arendt’s field reports, memoranda, and other primary documents from her time as an emissary for Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR). This dossier offers a documented view into the restitution efforts that took place in the wake of the Second World War. Visitors are encouraged to take a copy of the dossier with them. The unassuming booklet serves as a tangible record of plunder to take with them back into the real world.  

Image Credit: Aubrey Catrone

* Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art is on view at the Jewish Museum in New York until 9 January 2022