For the last two days I have been pouring over the known objects that have sales "fingerprints" which demonstrate a likelihood of possibly being touched by Ashraf Omar Eldarir, the US citizen, recently indicted for smuggling Egyptian antiquities.  Yesterday I added more suspect antiquities to that list and today I will add some more, putting the objects in chronological order as best I can, based on what we know so far as it helps to show how these objects moved from one dealer to another creating what at face value would appear to be a plausible collection history, except it isn't.  

I'd like to thank Paul Barford for his own public efforts at compiling his own version of this list as well as two confidential sources who have helped illustrate a few more of these passages.

Barford's hypothesis that this is not all of the Eldarir artefacts is a valid one,  as this list will demonstrate multiple instances where provenance details were omitted, either earlier on in the "whitening" cycle, or to not show catalogues flooded with objects over and over again coming from one single source. 

What this list will demonstrate is that the demand for objects from 2012 until 2020, and the ease at which they were absorbed into the licit market and resold, sometimes for high sums, is likely to have served to incentivise the accused, who now, alone, faces charges in the US Courts.   

Having said that, now on to the slightly more organized and ever-growing list identified objects up through 08 July 2020 that have been found to be circulating with ancient art dealers in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria with provenance we believe directly pertains to Ashraf Omar ELDARIR.

Date of Publication Unknown 


Ezeldeen Eldarir's name appears with this Egyptian Wood Painted Sarcophagus Mask with Howard Nowes at Art for Eternity.

 05 December 2012 


Christie's LOT 94. This is the first appearance of the Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Man.  Its provenance makes no mention of Eldarir.  It is listed simply as "Acquired by the grandfather of the current owner and brought to New York, prior to 1948; thence by descent" and sold for $52,500.


Ezeldeen Eldarir's name appears for the first time with this pair of Ancient Egyptian Bronze Eyes with Trocadero via Mark Goodstein at Explorer Ancient Art.

01 May 2013
Eldarir sold four Egyptian limestone relief fragments for Wahibrenebahet through Bonhams in London for €31,766 claiming they were from his personal collection, inherited through his grandfather who was a friend of Prince of Egypt Omar Tosson.

04 May 2014 


This Egyptian limestone relief associated with the cult of Amun which was sold through Gabriel Vandervort at Ancient Resource LLC.

18 May 2015 


This Limestone Stele fragment with no clearly named provenance can be found with Howard Rose in his 18 May 2015 Arte Primitivo sales catalogue. It will later turn up again in 2016 with Alexander Biesbroek.

NOTE: Several other Egyptian pieces in this catalogue DO NOT specify Eldarir but have the same "exported to the USA in XXXX" phrasing as the Eldarir pieces.

2016 


The Limestone Relief Fragment reappears, this time with Ashraf Eldarir provenance.  It sells for £28,750 via Alexander Biesbroek at Alexander Ancient Art.

30 June - 6 July 2016 

Page Screenshot as Charles Ede Ltd., has removed this item from their website as of 8 July 2020

Ezeldeen Eldarir's name appears with this Egyptian hieroglyphic relief fragment that is with James Ede at Charles Ede Ltd.

06 March 2017 


This Egyptian Standing Wooden Overseer with Ezeldeen Eldarir provenance can be found with Howard Rose in his 06 March 2017 Arte Primitivo sales catalogue.

NOTE: Several other Egyptian pieces in this catalogue DO NOT specify Eldarir but have the same "exported to the USA in XXXX" phrasing as the Eldarir pieces.

31 October 2018 



Christie’s LOT 49 First appearance of the Over-Lifesized Greek Marble Head, Provenance: "Acquired by the grandfather of the current owner and brought to New York, prior to 1948; thence by descent".  Sold for $52,500.

05 December 2018 

Ezeldeen Eldarir's name appears with this Wood & Gesso Sarcophagus Mask with Bob and Teresa Dodge at Artemis Gallery.

23 March 2019 


Ezeldeen Eldarir's name appears with this 26th Dynasty, Egyptian wood sarcophagus bust, with Washington DC dealer Sue McGovern at Sands of Time Ancient Art.

16 September 2019





Multiple pieces with Ezeldeen Eldarir provenance can again be found with Howard Rose in his 16 September 2019 Arte Primitivo sales catalogue including the previous pair of Ancient Egyptian Bronze Eyes previously advertised on Trocadero via Mark Goodstein at Explorer Ancient Art in 2012.

NOTE: Several other Egyptian pieces in this catalogue DO NOT specify Eldarir but have the same "exported to the USA in XXXX" phrasing as the Eldarir pieces, including the above Mudbrick and Plaster Painted Fragment #485 which will appear on the market again WITH Eldarir provenance via a Tennessee dealer on eBay in 2020.

2 December 2019 

Ezeldeen Eldarir's name appears again with the same Egyptian Pottery Jar with 70 Ushabtis with Howard Rose in his December 2019 Arte Primitivo sales catalogue.

2020 






Ezeldeen Eldarir's name also appears with Two Diorite Poppy Bead Amulets, an Amulet of a Wadj Sceptre with a Lotus Flower, a Lapis Lazuli Heart Amulet, a Hematite Heart Amulet and for the second time, the collection of 230 Faience Ushabtis,  and this Wooden Standing Figure of a Manat with Christoph Bacher Archäologie Ancient Art GmbH.

The wood figurine and the ushabtis were previously with Howard Rose in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

12 February 2020 


Ezeldeen Eldarir's name also appears with this Wooden Ushabti with Harlan J. Berk in his February 2020 HJB 210th Buy or Bid Sale sales catalogue.

07 March 2020 


Izz al-Din Tah al-Darir Bey's name (different spelling) appears on two objects sold earlier through Christie’s with the Eldarir name. One is now listed as the Ptolemaic Royal Portrait, possibly of Ptolemy III Euergetes and the other as the Portrait Head of the Emperor Severus Alexander. Both were with Jean-David Cahn at TEFAF in Maastricht at Stand 422 when we took pictures but neither object is now on Cahn’s website.

Both of these pieces passed through Christies before arriving to Cahn in Switzerland. The head on 05 December 2012 and the mask on 31 October 2018. 

04 March 2020 


Ezeldeen Eldarir's name also appears with this Egyptian Large Terracotta Isis-Aphrodite with Howard Rose on his website.

04 June 2020 




Ezeldeen Eldarir's name also appears with this Egyptian Polychrome Gesso Coffin Lid, these Egyptian Ptolemaic Papyrus Scrolls, Demotic Script and these other Egyptian Ptolemaic Papyrus Scrolls with Bob and Teresa Dodge at Artemis Gallery. 

July 2020


Ezeldeen Eldarir's name also appears with this Egyptian Polychrome Wall Painting being sold on eBay by "tassbunch2".

The next question is, sure the authorities seem to have caught a potential smuggler with at least 1025 objects circulating hither and thither.  But what about all the actors before and after him in this illicit supply chain of merry-go-round suitcases?

It is only when foreign buying agents, among them representatives from the United States, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, looking to cash in on padding out private collections back home that smuggling Egypt’s patrimony became such a lucrative money-making business.

By:  Lynda Albertson

All of this to say that it looks like one smuggler begat many pieces which are likely of concern and if you are a buyer, and you expect the market to be looking out for your best interests, you might want to think again. 

By: Lynda Albertson

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (HSI) - Cultural Property, Arts and Antiquities (CPAA) unit within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has formally released information related to an antiquities trafficking investigation underway in the Eastern District of New York.  The case involves Ashraf Omar Eldarir, a US Citizen residing in Brooklyn who has been charged with smuggling Egyptian antiquities into the United States.

Stopped on 22 January 2020 upon arrival to John F. Kennedy International Airport from overseas, Eldarir provided US Customs and Border Protection authorities at the U.S. port of entry with a CBP declaration form, the double-sided slip of paper everyone entering the US must complete and hand over to  U.S. Customs and Border Protection upon arrival declaring the value of the goods they are bringing in from overseas.  On this form, Eldarir declared that he was only carrying merchandise and agricultural products valued at $300.  Instead, upon inspection of his belonging by CBP personnel, Eldarir was found to be transporting three suitcases full of bubble and foam-wrapped packages.

When unwrapped for further inspection by border patrol agents, the packages were found to contain 590 ancient artifacts, some of which still had adhering sand and soil, a signal which betrays their having been recently excavated.  Questioned by the authorities about the contents of his luggage, Eldarir was unable to produce any documentation which would show that he had obtained authorization from the Egyptian authorities for the exportation of the objects he was transporting.

How long Mr. Eldarir has been at this remains to be disclosed. But these pieces are just the tip of a growing iceberg.  

On 1 May 2013 it seems that Eldarir sold four Egyptian limestone relief fragments for Wahibrenebahet through Bonhams in London for €31,766 claiming they were from his personal collection, inherited through his grandfather who was a friend of Prince of Egypt Omar Tosson.  Curious as to what proof of export he showed then. 

He also sold a Limestone Relief Fragment for £28,750 via Alexander Biesbroek.  Same provenance, same question as to what proof of export Mr. Biesbroek or his buyer reviewed. 

Add, rinse, repeat with the 26th Dynasty, Egyptian wood sarcophagus bust, with  Washington DC dealer Sue McGovern at Sands of Time Ancient Art.  

and then there is this Egyptian limestone relief associated with the cult of Amun which was sold through Gabriel Vandervort at Ancient Resource LLC.

And that's not all, there's more to come.  

Caveat Emptor

My suggestion is for every ancient art dealer or collector who has a piece with Eldarir provenance (and likely nothing to prove its legitimacy aside from its laundering) should really consider contacting HSI's Cultural Property, Arts and Antiquities (CPAA) unit.  They know how to google things as well as I do, and contacting them first might save you from embarrassing seizures, and no one wants that now. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

Focus:  For several years, the trafficking and smuggling of heritage items from libraries and archives has been steadily increasing, especially in the MENA and West and Central Africa regions which have often been plagued by politica upheaval and or military conflicts. 

This event will focus on documentary heritage, which is often at risk and in some cases less protected by various national legislations.

During this event, the hosts and guest speakers will discuss and present on the specific issues and challenges, in addition to the "Himaya" project suggested by Qatar National Library to support efforts to counter the trafficking and illegal circulation of the documentary heritage. 

Speakers: 

Dr. Rajaa Ben Salamah, General Director of the National Library of Tunisia 

Dr. Alsharqi Dahmali, Member of the Advisory Council of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Morroco 

Stephane J. Ipert, Director of the IFLA PAC at Qatar National Library 

Moderator: Maxim Nasra, Book Conservation Specialist at Qatar National Library 

Spaces are limited, please click the link to register for the VoiceBoxer event. 

Personal Effects of Antonio Amigo Sanchez.

In January 2018, in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day, a traveling exhibition produced by the Arolsen Archives – the International Center on Nazi Persecution, (known as the International Tracing Service, ITS, or the Internationaler Suchdienst in German up until May 2019) was hosted at UNESCO in Paris.  Commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27th, the large-format poster exhibition highlighted a collection of around 3,000 personal belongings, from concentration camp inmates, which the former ITS archive hopes to be able to return to families.

Inside the the Arolsen Archives

Titled Stolen Memory, each poster in the exhibit showed the names of people as well as photos of the objects these prisoners carried with them when they were arrested by the National Socialists more than seven decades ago.  Simple things, like pocket and wristwatches, wallets and rings, a cherished family photo, or shopping coupons, or a utilitarian pocket comb.  Each one is a poignant and very personal reminder of the day these individuals were stripped of their freedom, and in most cases, eventually, their lives.

At the close of World War II the SS, attempting to cover their tracks, destroyed most of these prisoner traces, together with most of the documents connecting objects to their victims when many of the concentration camps were cleared. Yet, a small inventory has been preserved where tracing them to an individual victim is possible, mostly from the Neuengamme concentration camp system in northern Germany, as well as some objects from Dachau and Bergen-Belsen. 

Sadly, few personal effects of Jewish prisoners survived.  Those that do belong mostly to members of the Jewish community in Budapest, who were not deported directly to the gas chambers at the end of 1944, but were first shipped to Germany and used as forced laborers in the arms industry.

With brutal matter of fact record-keeping, Nazis bookkeepers at concentration camps like Neuengamme recorded the property of its prisoners by name, keeping them until their murder, or until they dropped dead from "Vernichtung durch Arbeit" the practice in concentration camps in Nazi Germany of exterminating prisoners by means of forced labour.  This written testimony of persecution has been essential, not only for tracing missing persons and their effects but also for documenting the atrocities carried out by the National Socialist machinery of terror.

The majority of the personal items in the Arolsen Archives salvaged after the war belong to political prisoners and detained forced laborers from Poland, Russia and the Ukraine though some objects are also the last memories of victims as far away as Spain. 

Now, a digital story-telling version of the Stolen Memory initiative can be experienced online.  Here, web participants can view objects owned by 14 former prisoners of the concentration camp Auschwitz, which tell the stories of just a few of the victims of Nazi politics.   Of the more than 5000 objects tied to individuals collected by the archivists, some 3000 still lie on the shelves.  For families, getting them back is a painful, if precious recovery, because often those effects represent the only traces of their lost loved ones they have, most of whom never returned home.

Take a look here and perhaps help find the rightful owners of these memories.

An ancient Roman marble head was seized on the basis of a search warrant requested by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office on June 24th at Christie’s auction house based on evidence provided by the Italian Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, attesting that the portrait bust had been stolen from Italy in on 18 November 1985 before eventually landing in New York.  Taken at gunpoint from the Antiquarium of the Campanian Amphitheatre in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, in the Province of Caserta, situated 25 km north of Naples in southern Italy.  The sculpture depicts Septimius Severus who served as Roman emperor from 193 to 211 CE. 

The antiquity was published in Christie's 28 October 2019 catalogue Faces of the Past - Ancient Sculpture from the Collection of Dr. Anton Pestalozzi which included two pages describing the biography of the Roman Emporer and the object's comparable likeness to other portraits of Severus in the Serapis-type style, including one at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Denmark.

For the object's provenance, Christie's stated:

◘ with Jean-Luc Chalmin, London

◘ with Galerie Arete, Zurich, acquired from the above, 1993

◘ Dr. Anton Pestalozzi (1915-2007), Zurich, acquired from the above, thence by descent to the current owner. 

According to Roman Historian Cato the Elder the site at Ancient Capua where the object originates was founded by the Etruscans around 800 BCE and is remembered most for being the site where slaves and gladiators led by the legendary Spartacus revolted 73 BCE. 

While details on this particular investigation have not yet been released to the public, one of the troubling aspects in this case - of which there are many - and the most disturbing perhaps, is the failure of anyone whose hands this object passed through to have properly investigated the provenance of this portrait head.  No one, from Jean-Luc Chalmin, to Hans Humbel at Galerie Arete to the Zurich-based lawyer-collector Dr. Anton Pestalozzi ever bothered to ascertain by reasonable inquiry that the person from whom they had obtained the artifact had the legal right to possess it.

Amphitheater Campano Santa Maria Capua Vetere

On the bright side, this third object seizure in a span of weeks should send an important message to the auction powerhouse, as well as to dealers who profit from the sales of illicit material, that the Antiquities Trafficking Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the US and Italian authorities are committed to protecting cultural heritage around the world.

A second artefact, stolen during this same armed robbery, a head portrait depicting the beloved elder sister of Roman Emperor Trajan, Ulpia Marciana (August 48 – 112) was recovered, twenty-five years ago, ten years after the theft.

Update:

This artefact was restituted to Italy on December 30, 2021.

Most of the time, when one thinks of illicit antiquities one imagines them transiting their way through lofty auction showrooms in London, New York, or more recently, as was in the news last week, Paris.  One doesn't usually suspect a homegrown auction house, from the windy city of Chicago, as a place to spot hot art that once passed through the hands of one of Italy's most notorious bad boys, art dealer Giacomo Medici.  But the market for looted or unprovenanced cultural property in America is still going strong and plundered artefacts have the tendency to scatter farther than you think.  Sometimes, when they do, they turn up in places that we don't expect, well, at least until we do.

An art dealer who post-sentence resides in an expansive seaside villa west of Rome, Giacomo Medici was convicted 13 December 2004 of participation in an organized criminal group as its principal promoter and organizer.  Men in his network plundered large swaths of Italy's territory, with the network's loot making its way into some of the world's most prestigious museums and lining the shelves of extravagant private collections.  But despite the sixteen years that have past since his conviction, Medici's ill-gotten wares continue to bubble to the surface, not unlike Italian gnocchi, one object at a time, in slow dribs and drabs and usually not even mentioning his name as was the case with this recent artefact.

This time, in late June, an investigation lead by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in collaboration with the New York District Attorney's Office and the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage turned up another one of Giacomino's antiquities, this time at Chicago's very own, Hindman Auctioneers, a firm which merged in 2019 with Ohio-based Cowan's and shortened its name from Leslie Hindman to just plain Hindman. 

Photographed on pages 116 and 117 of Hindman's 16 June 2020 Antiquities and Islamic Art catalogue, Lot 15, A Roman Marble Torso of a Faun with a Goose lists the artefact's provenance succinctly: 

What was provided to back up this claim, or what import, export, or shipping documents were submitted to demonstrate that this Italian antiquity's passages into the United States previously, then back across the sea to the UK, then back into Chicago were legitimate, leaves me curious. 

With no difficulty, and without auction consignment profits to incentivise (or disincentivise) my due diligence, I was quickly, and without too much trouble, able to find and cross-reference the 2013 sale via the Forge & Lynch Antiquities - Including the Collection of Ernst Langlotz (1895-1978) catalogue.   This sales PDF documented the previous sale of the mythological half-human, half-goat, creature with a discreet tail in a two-page spread.

Joint proprietors of the art dealership Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd., Forge and Lynch left Sotheby’s in London in 1997 when the auction house began winding down its London antiquities sales and continued working together for their own ancient art gallery formed in the UK in July 2000.  Both art dealers are familiar with the problem children antiquities dealers of yesteryear from their Sotheby's days, and both have continued to get their reputations scorched brokering suspect art via more recent problematic dealers like Subhash Kapoor. 

So even without Medici's name clearly printed on anything provenance-y provided by the Faun's consignor to Hindman, one has to question first where Forge & Lynch themselves got the piece, and secondly, their own provenance entry for the earlier sale of this artefact, which reads: 

This entry leads me to ask why Hindman changed the "probably acquired in New York" to definitely acquired in New York.  It is also curious why Hindman left off the non-specific "Private collection" in London which at first shakes, might appear less problematic than Robin Symes, whose name appears elsewhere in the June catalogue for LOT 83 from this sale. 

Did someone at Hindman find paperwork that changed the Faun's purported New York acquisition from probable into definite?  And what about that private collection in London from the 1990s until 2013.  Wasn't that one line, even vaguely written, not naming names worth mentioning on the big empty space of the full-page advertisement for the sculpture?  So why did Hindman elect to omit this detail?  

My hunch is that Hindman, who voluntarily relinquished the sculpture of the Faun to the authorities once evidence was presented by law enforcement, operates under the assumption that the occasional confiscation of a found-to-be-looted antiquity identified in their sales catalogues is a reasonable cost of doing business in the murky world of ancient art.  

Risks Hindman has already proved willing to take in the past and that illicit antiquities researcher Christos Tsirogiannis, cooperating with HSI-ICE, pointed out in an earlier Hindman auction, published in the auction house's ‘Worldly Pursuits: An Adventurer’s Collection. The Estate of Steve and Peggy Fossett catalogue. In that sale, Tsirogiannis identified three antiquities which matched archival photos in the Medici and Symes archives which proved that the objects had once passed through, or been shared with the networks of Giacomo Medici, Robin Symes, and Christo Michaelides.

But let's go back to this month's Hindman, June 16th auction catalogue.  In this summer's sale, 127 objects out of 273 are listed without any provenance dates whatsoever.  Of the 146 remaining objects included in the catalogue which do list some date references:

Knowing that illicit trafficking eyes cannot monitor every single sale, or inquire about every single object consigned to every auction house around the world, leaving out provenance details creates an environment conducive for a game of risk, with dealers more than willing to play, chalking up any losses from the occasional identified object after it has been illegally exported, as inventory shrinkage.

By limiting the details of what is written in provenance descriptions for objects being sold, dealers and auction houses create intentional impediments to those who try to research an object's legitimacy, making it more difficult to discern when an antiquity has passed through the hands of suspect dealers and when a legitimate object has simply been badly documented by a previous owner careless with their receipts.  And that's just speaking to those interested enough, and with the time to dedicate to actually monitor the previous sales of ancient artefacts.

According to a new report published to the LiveAuctioneers website, this inaugural Hindman ancient art auction brought in nearly $1M in sales, proving once again, that despite all the academics screaming about the necessity for clean provenance, buyers of ancient art, for the most part, are not unduly curious about the collection histories of their potential ancient art purchases.  Likewise, more collectors continue to be oblivious or disengaged as to whether or not the antiquities market is problematic and whether or not their lack of curiosity, and lack of due diligence before buying, acts as a catalyst for the destruction of archaeological sites in the Mediterranean world.