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August 11, 2024

Sunday, August 11, 2024 - ,,,,,,, No comments

Tinker, Tailor, Carefully Curated Art Dealer Spy



The Perfect Cover: A Life in Slovenia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


The Art Market as a Canvas for Espionage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 1, 2024

Thursday, August 01, 2024 - No comments

Michel Van Rijn: The death of a Smuggler and Informant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By: Lynda Albertson

May 23, 2024

Thursday, May 23, 2024 - ,,,,,, 1 comment

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

• Rafael Heredia González, a jeweller


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Previous recoveries related to this theft case. 

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


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


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

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

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

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

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



May 16, 2024

Thursday, May 16, 2024 - , No comments

Rising Threats in the Art Market's Cybersecurity Landscape

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 12, 2024

Sunday, May 12, 2024 - ,,,,,, No comments

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

By Lynda Albertson





May 5, 2024

Sunday, May 05, 2024 - , No comments

Celebrating our 13th year of academic conferences addressing art and antiquities crimes, ARCA will host its summer interdisciplinary art crime conference the weekend of June 21-23, 2024.


Conference Date:  
June 21-23, 2024
Location: Amelia, Italy

Celebrating our 13th year of academic conferences addressing art and antiquities crimes, ARCA will host its summer interdisciplinary art crime conference the weekend of June 21-23, 2024.

Known as the Amelia Conference, the Association's weekend-long event aims to facilitate a critical appraisal of art crimes and the protection of art and cultural heritage and brings together researchers and academics, police, and individuals from many of the allied professions that interact with the art market, coming together to discuss issues of common concern. 

This conference is an annual ARCA event, held in the historic city of Amelia, in the heart of Italy's Umbria region where ARCA also plays host to its Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection.

The conference includes a weekend full of multidisciplinary panel sessions, and plenty of time to meet others who are working towards the protection and recovery of cultural heritage.

Confirmed Presentations (additional names will be added as speakers confirm)


The Victimization of Art
Catherine P. Foster
Partner, Argus Cultural Property Consultants, Washington DC
Timothy Carpenter
Managing Director, Argus Cultural Property Consultants, Washington DC

Where’s the Loot
Colonel Andrew Scott Dejesse
US Army CENTCOM CCJ5, Program Director, Strategic Initiatives Group, Amarillo
Marc Masurovsky, M.A.
Co-founder Holocaust Art Restitution Project, Washington DC

The European Union's CULTNET
Christine Casteels
Project Manager EU CULTNET
Member Driver team EMPACT CSE
Federal Judicial Police DJSOC - Belgium

Revealing Entangled Art Markets and Problematic Art Provenance through the Stendahl Art Galleries Records
Kylie King, M.A.
Pre-Hispanic Art Provenance Initiative, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

Repatriation in Two Acts: Identifying & Recovering Stolen Pages of 16th Century American Theatrical History
K.T. Newton, J.D.
Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Philadephia

Exploring Art Crime in Canada: Uncovering the Norval Morrisseau Forgery Ring
Lauren Elyse Gowler, LL.M. Candidate
Queen Mary University of London; The Institute of Art & Law, London

The Other Genocide of the Twentieth Century: Unique Challenges Facing Armenian Art Restitution
Madison A. King, MLitt, J.D., Litigation Attorney
Kolar and Associates, A Law Corporation, Los Angeles

Fighting Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Goods: RITHMS SNA-based Platform as an Innovative Tool to Dismantle Criminal Networks
Michela De Bernardin, Ph.D., Post-doc
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Venice

Interactions between Switzerland and EU’s Cultural Heritage Regulation against Illicit Trafficking in a Borderless Area. Latest Developments and Remaining Vulnerabilities
Katharina Nothnagel-Vivas, Ph.D. Candidate
King Juan Carlos University, Madrid

Strengthening international cooperation in the fight against illicit trafficking. How have things changed in the last decade in terms of international cooperation?"
Charlotte Chambers-Farah, LL.M.
Art Loss Register, London

Making Sense of Fair Use in a Post-Warhol World
Judith B. Prowda, Esq.
Partner, Stropheus Art Law, New York

Offende Principle and Aesthetic Judgment in (Street) Writing
Maria Di Maggio, Ph.D. Candidate in Criminal Law - Dipartimento Jonico in Sistemi Giuridici ed Economici del Mediterraneo - Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari

New Frontiers in Art Crime Encroaching on Old Borders: Protecting Artistic Innovation in the Digital Age
Cinnamon Stephens, J.D.
Owner, Kunst Mitos Consulting, Amsterdam
Fred Van de Walle, M.A.
Marine archaeological conservator, Switzerland

Ritratto di Gentiluomo con berretto nero: A Case Study on The Intersection of the Art Market and Cultural Heritage Protection
Serena Sancataldo, Ph.D. Candidate
Team member of the UNESCO Chair on Business Integrity and Crime Prevention in Art and Antiquities Market, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Criminal Law Department, Caserta

Explaining Money Laundering in the Art Market to a Jury: My Turn to Be on the Witness Stand
Jane Levine, J.D.
Partner and Co-founder Art Risk Group, New York

Smuggling across the ocean: Loschi’s Christ bearing the Cross in the Gardner Museum
Francesca Romana Gregori, Ph.D. Candidate
Università degli Studi di Milano Statale


Registration:
To register for this event, please go to our Eventbrite page located here.



Conference Networking Events

Saturday and Sunday's conference sessions include complimentary morning and afternoon coffee breaks, with coffee, juices and light pastries or afternoon hors d'oeuvres to allow time for networking. 

Friday, June 21st - Casablanca themed Icebreaker Cocktail "Cena" at the Country House Monastero le Grazie  
NB: To attend this event, please select the correct registration payment option during your conference registration.

ARCA will open its conference weekend with this relaxing icebreaker cocktail at the Country House Monastero le Grazie, an enchanting centuries-old Cistercian monastery adjacent to the Church and Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, built in 1300.  This unique conference venue is located in the hamlet of Foce, just a few kilometers outside the centro storico of Amelia and will also play host to Saturday's Gala Dinner. 


Saturday, June 22nd- Cloister Buffet Luncheon in the centro storico of Amelia**
Saturday, June 22nd - Italian Slow Food Conference Dinner at Il Ristoro del Priore, Country House Monastero le Grazie  (Please RSVP by 15 June 2024). **
Sunday, June 23rd - Cloister Buffet Luncheon - in the centro storico of Amelia**


** Ticketing to the optional Gala Dinner and Conference Lunches can be paid for directly at the conference venues:

Please note: The Amelia Conference has sold out in 2019 and 2023.  We recommend that those interested in attending reserve their tickets in advance to ensure availability.   Seating is limited and fire-safety prevention rules prevent us from overbooking.

If you have any questions regarding this conference, please contact the ARCA conference organisation team at:

italy.conference [at] artcrimeresearch.org

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