Evgeni Svetoslavov Mutafchiev flew to Switzerland from Dubai on Sunday, July 6th.  His visit to Zurich wasn’t to buy Swiss chocolates. Rather, his discreet arrival marked the final step in removing a legal axe hanging over his head—charges filed in relation to a New York investigation into antiquities trafficking.

On July 7th, he surrendered, was arrested, arraigned. He pled guilty on July 8th to a State of New York charge of conspiracy in the fifth degree (N.Y. Penal Law §105.05[1]). During his hearing, he also agreed to waive his right to appeal his conviction and confirmed having forfeited $750,000, an amount representing his proceeds of crime that the New York District Attorney’s Office had reasonably proven.

Mutafchiev, more commonly known as Eugene Alexander, is a dual Bulgarian and American citizen who was born in Varna, Bulgaria, along the Black Sea. Before becoming entangled in the illicit antiquities trade, he once worked as a reporter for a local television station in his hometown, before moving on to a public relations role at the city’s National Archaeological Museum.

That all changed in 1984 when he moved to Munich and began working as an “art and antiquity investment consultant.” In 1998 he relocated again, this time to the United States, where he went on to earn a Master’s degree from Cleveland State University and a Doctorate from New York University. Now holding academic credentials centring on Greek and Roman history, Alexander quickly became involved in cultural property crime, emerging as a key person of interest in a sprawling New York investigation targeting the circulation of looted artefacts in the state, while various other countries looked into his financial flows as a suspect in money laundering.

New York Court filings and open-source analysis indicate that Alexander leveraged both his family ties and connections with senior government officials and TIM—which, according to law enforcement and the U.S. State Department, appears to be an organized crime syndicate incorporated as a holding company based in Varna that increasingly looks like Multigroup in its efforts to penetrate as many illegal sectors as possible. 

Alexander also actively circulated large numbers of looted antiquities, facilitating false provenance for some of the high-value objects he handled which were, then laundered forward through European and US ancient art dealers before being sold to wealthy collectors. To accomplish this, Alexander made use of a network of shell corporations and offshore banks identified as operating in Malta, Liechtenstein, the Crown Dependency of Jersey, and the Seychelles.

One of the most notable objects the New York hedge fund mogul bought from him was this1400–1200 BCE larnax—a small chest for human remains, painted with aquatic motifs.  The artefact was crafted in workshops near Rethymno on the island of Crete, a region which unfortunately as long been a frequent target of clandestine excavations and looting.  

Steinhardt paid Alexander $575,000 for the Larnax via Seychelles-based FAM Services via SATABANK —a Malta-based financial institution.  SATABANK was wholly owned by two entities (Christo Giorgiev and a private limited company), with Alexander being a 19.8% owner of SATABANK. In 2020, the European Central Bank revoked SATABANK’s banking license due to an on-going investigation into its money laundering.  This particular artefact was restored by Flavio Bertolin who reconstructed the Larnax from fragments.  It also appears in a photograph recovered from Steinhardt’s records which showed the Minoan container when it was freshly looted and still broken into several large fragments. 

As part of his trafficking scheme, Alexander cultivated sources across Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, especially in Greece and Turkiye, where source country looters sent him photographs of freshly excavated artefacts. Once selected, the illicit material was then smuggled into Germany or the UK, where he arranged for the objects to be cleaned and restored, either by Flavio Bertolin in Munich or Darren Bradbury in London.  In some instances, plundered material would be  authenticated through thermoluminescence (TL) testing, conducted by Ralf Kotalla, who also supplied authenticity certificates to other suspect dealers with ties to illicit trafficking, including Gianfranco Becchina.

Once restored and prepared for market, many of Alexander's looted artefacts circulated with Fuat Üzülmez, a Turkish Syriac dealer born in Mardin, Turkye who ran Artemis Gallery in Munich.  Other were circulated with Hubert Lanz of Numismatik Lanz in Austria, or in the United States via Ward & Company, Fine Art in New York.  Dozens of these fresh finds were given vague provenance statements, such as “ex Geneva private collection, acquired in the early 1990s,” or, less frequently, “acquired in the early 1980s.”

Alexander's connection to trafficked material surfaced publicly according to a stipulation dated 6 September 2023, when Michael Ward agreed to plead guilty to Criminal Facilitation in the Fourth Degree (N.Y. Penal Law §115.00[1]).  As part of his plea agreement, he voluntarily surrendered 44 antiquities, valued at approximately $22 million, which he, or the District Attorney, had identified as having been sold, consigned, or previously held by Eugene Alexander. Ward also agreed to fully and truthfully cooperate with the prosecutor's continued investigation into Eugene Alexander's illegal activity.

According to Ward's charging document, during a multi-national investigation conducted in cooperation with the Manhattan ATU, US Homeland Security - HSI, and law enforcement units in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom into Eugene Alexander, Michael Ward, and others cultural property crimes, German authorities carried out a raid on Alexander's apartment on 23 February 2022 in Germany.  There, they recovered, among many objects, Alexander's computers and various data drives.  On these officers recovered a series of photographs that various looters had sent to the dealer, many of which included depictions of plundered antiquities in a freshly looted state, prior to their being cleaned or restored. 

Over the course of this multi-year investigation, the Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (DANY) conducted a total of six seizures from Alexander, recovering an additional 67 looted antiquities which the DA estimates are worth $31 million. This brought the estimated total value of material seized in the US and connected to this single individual to just over $100 million.

Despite the damages done to the world's historical record, Alexander’s arrival to Switzerland this summer was low key and voluntary, coordinated in cooperation with the Manhattan DA's office and his defense attorneys, Elliot Sagor and Roger Stavis of Mintz & Gold’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations practice.  Unlike other defendants wanted in New York in relation to other DANY antiquities investigations—such as Subhash Kapoor and Georges Lotfi—Alexander was not subject to an INTERPOL Red Notice, a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.  Instead, his quiet arrival in Zurich signalled that broader cooperating negotiations were already in progress with US authorities, ultimately culminating in his trip to Switzerland, his guilty plea and sentencing.

What Comes Next?

The Eugene Alexander case sheds light not only on this interconnected trafficker's operations, but on the systemic mechanisms, within conservation sectors, the art market and in banking, that allow freshly looted illicit antiquities to circulate, via complex supply chains, while profits made by their sales can be channelled fluidly across borders and jurisdictions to offshore banks.

With Alexander's Zurich sojourn complete and his 8 July 2024 conviction confirmed, the New York District Attorney’s Office has officially concluded its case against him, as well as the state's case against his US associate, Michael Ward, who was convicted a year and a half earlier and who died this year on 19 March 2025.

To date, Alexander has not publicly addressed any of his legal entanglements, nor has he explained why, at least for a while, he elected to reside in Dubai—a known haven for individuals seeking to avoid extradition to Europe and the US. 

Authorities with Spain's Policía Nacional have dismantled a sophisticated antiquities trafficking network operating across Córdoba, Jaén, and Seville. As part of the investigation, code-named Operación Prados, Spain’s National Police arrested seven individuals suspected of orchestrating an illicit operation that trafficked thousands of archaeological artifacts—including coins, brooches, oil lamps, and other freshly looted material.

The investigation began in March 2023, when police monitoring online sales activities identified a suspicious numismatics business who is a member of the  Asociación Numismática Español based in Mairena del Aljarafe, just outside Seville. The business advertised widely across online auction platforms such as MA Shops, vCoins, Biddr, and eBay, as well as through its own virtual storefront. Investigators were alerted by a telling detail: several coins listed for sale still bore traces of soil, suggesting they had been recently unearthed—likely through illegal excavation. If confirmed, their sale and export would constitute a crime against historical heritage under Article 323 of Spain’s Penal Code which states:

1. Whoever causes damage to assets of historical, artistic, scientific, cultural or monumental value, as well as to archaeological, land and underwater sites shall be punished with a prison sentence of six months to three years or a fine of twelve to twenty-four months. Acts of plunder of the aforementioned sites shall be punished with the same penalty.

Following a lengthy investigation, authorities determined that the seven individuals had, over a five-year period, built a pipeline of looted material sourced directly from illegal metal detectorists working from unknown excavation sites across Andalusia. These items were then marketed and sold to collectors across the globe, without the mandatory cultural export permits, in direct violation of Spain’s national heritage laws.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of the Interior, the group used shipping hubs in Linares and Lucena to distributethousands of ancient coins and antiquities to buyers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In order to evade detection, they routinely mislabeled parcels as “gifts,” avoiding the formal customs clearance process and lowering the risk of inspection.

In a coordinated police operation, simultaneous raids were carried out at three locations—Mairena del Aljarafe, Linares, and Lucena—resulting in the arrest of three couples and one employee. Authorities seized approximately 3,000 artefacts, 73 silver coins, and €37,625 in cash. Prior to these arrests, law enforcement had already intercepted a single outgoing shipment containing 22 bags with more than 1,900 archaeological items.

In total, investigators estimate that the network generated as much as half a million euros in illicit revenue over the past five years.

This Spanish operation highlights the increasingly sophisticated mechanisms behind modern heritage exploitation.  Looters using metal detectors in archaeologically rich regions continue to funnel artefacts directly into the global antiquities market through well-connected criminal networks.  These networks, in turn, rely on e-commerce platforms that offer little to no vetting—creating the perfect storm where illicit cultural property can be laundered and sold across international jurisdictions with minimal scrutiny.

The practice of mislabeling parcels as “gifts” further illustrates the challenge of tracking both the physical and financial flows tied to looted cultural goods.

Why this matters: 

Spain’s archaeological heritage—spanning from prehistoric settlements to Roman cities—is a shared cultural legacy. When artefacts are removed without documentation or context, we lose irreplaceable pieces of history. This crackdown by Spanish authorities sends a clear message: stolen heritage will be pursued, recovered, and protected.

The anthropomorphic coffin of Pa-di-Hor-pa-khered, believed to have belonged to a member of Egypt’s elite during the Ptolemaic era (4th–3rd century BCE), represents a compelling case in the study of illicit antiquities circulation and restitution.

In October 2016, a file is opened at the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office (Notice number BR.68.LL.101942/2016)  for suspicion of art trafficking, regarding a striking gold-faced coffin once believed to have rested undisturbed in a necropolis in ancient Egypt.

The artefact made headlines this week in the cloister of the Royal Museums of Art and History, at the Cinquantenaire, not for its craftsmanship or symbolism, but because it was being restituted after having been illegally trafficked, and handled by multiple ancient art dealers and intermediaries, including Europeans Jacques Billen of Galerie Harmakhis in Belgium and Jaume Bagot Peix, operator of J. Bagot Arqueología in Barcelona.  The coffin's former occupant was a man by the name of Pa-di-Hor-pa-khered, (he who was given by Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis), his body long since dumped along the way.  Despite it's beautiful inscriptions, meticulous workmanship and coloured glass inlays in the eyes and breastplate, without its occupant it is just another sad example of how looted burial antiquities move—quietly, persistently, and without mercy or respect for the deal—through the global art market.

According to an article from Paris Match Belgique in December 2017, the coffin, along with a stone statuette had been stolen from an archaeological site in Egypt in December 2015 and where then smuggled out of the source country, ultimately ending up with the ancient art dealer in Le Sablon, in Brussels.  But despite these objects identification a decade ago, the coffin's return to HE Mr. Ahmed ABU ZEID, the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Belgium, Luxembourg and to the European Union and NATO, was just the final step in a long and complex legal procedure to bring the artefacts home.

Initiated following an international letter rogatory issued by the Attorney General of Cairo, and assisted by law enforcement partners in multiple European countries, the judgment requiring the artefact's restitution was issued by the Court of Cassation in Belgium on 9 April 2025. 

But this story isn’t just about one object. It’s about how looting, laundering, and legitimate-seeming sales and business relationships all intersect, and how buyers, sometimes unwittingly, often become the final link in a long and illegal chain. And it’s also a reminder that an object once buried with care over 2,000 years ago can (still) tie up judges and lawyers in legal battles, diplomatic gestures, and unending debates about who owns the past in the 21st century.

I would like to think the underworld god Osiris has kept watch over where this man’s body ultimately lays. 

Following a two-year investigation, culminating in a coordinated effort between Spain’s Guardia Civil and Italy’s Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, 62 valuable cultural assets were repatriated to Spain today under the banner of Operation Altarpiece in a ceremony held at the “Swiss Guards Hall” of the Royal Palace in Turin.  The investigation was directed by Investigating Court No. 1 of Marbella, which worked closely with Eurojust to coordinate international legal cooperation. 

The case began in June 2023 when the Guardia Civil received intelligence via Europol’s Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA), alerting them to the seizure in Italy of a carved polychrome and gilded wood altarpiece, with scenes of the Passion of Christ from the 16th century.  This religious work of art had been illegally exported from Andalusia five years after Spanish authorities had denied its earlier export request, made by the now-deceased German couple who had been residing in Marbella (Málaga).

Under Spanish law, cultural properties of this nature—i.e., artworks over 100 years old, included in the General Inventory of Movable Property of Historical Heritage, or valued above specific monetary thresholds (ranging from €15,000 for drawings, engravings, and photographs to €150,000 for paintings)—require a definitive or temporary export permit.  The seized altarpiece in question lacked any of these necessary authorisations.

As the investigation expanded, authorities focused on tracing how this altarpiece had been removed from Spain and transported into Italy and whether the object's holders had trafficked any additional artworks out of the country.  During their subsequent investigation, officers determined that over 90 cultural objects had been exported from Marbella using a non-specialised transport company which moved Renaissance panel paintings, some configured as triptychs, sculptures, vases, tapestries, French 17th and 18th century furniture, and works attributed to artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Auguste Rodin, and Pieter Brueghel, (the younger).

Italian investigators located many of these works in the villa of Günter Hans Ludwig Kiss, on the shores of Lake Maggiore in Lesa, the same home where the altarpiece had been recovered.  Other works were traced to art galleries, as well as private residences, in Genoa and Milan.   Still others had been sold onward and re-exported from Italy to a third country.  Kiss, the controversial German garbage magnate, was once listed in the top 300 list of rich businessmen in Switzerland, and died, at the age of 81, on 04 February 2023, a few weeks after his wife's own death.  

While alive, the German entrepreneur was involved in numerous legal cases: both civil and criminal for his waste management activities. In the 1990s, he was placed trial for environmental crimes committed with the commissioning of a Thermoselect plant.  Having sold their properties in Switzerland and Spain, and without heirs, the Kiss assets, contested by creditors, were slated to go to the Kan Foundation, a non-profit organisation only established in the tax haven of Liechtenstein in 2023.

As a result of thier line of inquiry, the Spanish court issued multiple European Investigation Orders to judicial authorities in Italy and Germany, along with an International Letter of Request to the United Kingdom, seeking the restitution of the works located in each of the aforementioned jurisdictions.

On Thursday, 16 December 2021, at least two of the seized paintings on view during today's restitution ceremony had been consigned for sale to Cambi Casa d'Aste for an Old Masters sale held at Castello Mackenzie in Genova (Italy).  The first being this early 16th century painting, representing the Madonna and Child with Saint Anne believed to have been painted by members of the Antwerp School, the painting is estimated to be worth between €30,000 to €50,000. 

and this 16th century, 'Triptych depicting the Holy Family and angels' also from the Antwerp School values at between €20,000 and €30,000.

Given that no provenance details accompanied either advertisement for this auction,  one also needs to look closely, not only at the business mogul Günter Hans Ludwig Kiss, but at the origins of these Antwerp School works in relation to World War II-era claims. 

No rules followed, too few questions asked

This restitution case underscores the importance of applying for, and legally obtaining, export permits for cultural property when transferring art works from one country to another.  Legal requirements such as these are designed to prevent the illicit removal of historically or culturally significant objects, and allows national cultural authorities to assess each item’s provenance and artistic importance to the nation prior to authorising removal. 

The investigation also highlights the lack of consistent due diligence on the part of some art market resellers in verifying the legal status of artworks before accepting them for purchase or agreeing to take them under consignment. 

Due diligence is not simply best practice—it is essential for safeguarding a nation’s heritage and ensuring transparency and accountability within the international art trade.  Institutions and private dealers should be prepared to ask potential sellers and consignors tough questions, and to require proof of proper documentation, including export permits when required, in order to prevent inadvertently facilitating the sale of illicit cultural property.  

Failure to do so, or intentionally turning a blind eye, exposes collectors, art dealers, and auction houses to reputational damage and undermines collective efforts to protect cultural heritage from being lost to illicit markets.

By:  Lynda Albertson

This Regulation applies only to cultural goods created or discovered outside of the European Union.

The regulation was introduced in response to:

• Increasing international concerns about looted antiquities (particularly from conflict zones like Syria, Iraq*),
• The use of cultural objects to fund terrorism,
• The lack of uniform rules across EU Member States regarding the import of cultural goods.

1. Import Licences

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

As the illicit trade in art and antiquities continues to thrive in both licit and grey markets, the need for sharp, investigative methodologies has never been greater. OSINT — the practice of collecting and analysing publicly available data — has proven to be a powerful tool in tracing looted cultural objects, debunking false provenances, identifying stolen artworks in circulation, and documenting digital evidence for restitution claims.

The new series of challenges will simulate real-world provenance research and investigative tasks, encouraging participants to hone skills in geolocation, reverse image search, metadata analysis, social media tracing, and transaction monitoring — all in the context of cultural property crime. Whether you're a student, journalist, researcher, or investigator, developing OSINT fluency can enhance your ability to verify ownership histories, identify risk indicators, and contribute to more transparent, ethical collecting practices.

By partnering with Bellingcat, ARCA aims to not only raise awareness of the role of digital research in cultural heritage protection but also to build a community of problem-solvers committed to uncovering the hidden stories behind stolen art.

W£ant to try your hand?  The first of the challenges can be unlocked here. Will you be the one to crack the case?

The private peninsula on the the Island of Schinoussa, currently owned by the Papadimitriou family.

A long time ago, on an island not so far away, in April 2006, Greek authorities involved in “Operation Aeolos”, executed a search warrant at the Papadimitriou - Michaelides family properties located on the small Greek island of Schinoussa in the Eastern Cyclades, as well as a second residence owned by Despina Papadimitriou in the affluent Athens suburb of Paleo Psychiko.  By the time this police action took place, the 206 acres on the privately-owned cape overlooking the Aegean Sea, purchased in the 1970s by Christos Michaelides, Despina Papadimitriou, and their mother Irini Papadimitriou, had already been transferred to six offshore limited liability companies based in Panama.  Those company shares were subsequently transferred to Dimitri, Angeliki and Alexandros Papadimitriou.

Early view of the Michaelides Papadimitriou mansion, on the privately owned cape of Schinoussa.

The searches carried out at these two locations lasted a week, during which a total of 152 ancient artworks were inventoried by investigating authorities, pieces which the Papadimitriou's appointed lawyer claimed belonged to an offshore Panama-based company named Land Investments Funds S.A.   Later, evaluations by two committees of experts, held in order to determine which objects were authentic and subject to seizure under existing Greek Law 3028/2002 on the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General, determined that 65 of the seized items were protected under Greece's cultural property law and that 53 of these were confirmed as having been illegally acquired.  The committee also looked into what objects might merely have been fakes or reproductions.

In addition to the artefacts, police conducting the search recovered 17 leather-bound albums containing photographic documentation, evidence now referred to as the “Schinoussa Archive”.  These Inside these binders, business records depict a total of  995 artefacts viewable across 2,191 photos, with the bulk of the images, shot by professional photographers.  

The records are derived from the most important antiquities which are known to have been directly circulated by, or proffered for sale to, antiquities dealers Robin Symes and Christo Michaelides, who sold ancient art to prominent collectors and museums through Robin Symes Limited, based in London.

While the professional photographs contained in this archive are not, in and of themselves, probative evidence that each photographed antiquity came into the possession of Symes and Michaelides, or that each ancient object was circulated on the art market subsequent to illicit excavation or illegal removal from their country of origin, but the vast number of antiquities depicted in these files raise disturbing questions about where the objects came from as well as the pair's established business connections with known antiquities trafficking networks. 

The artefacts seized in 2006 as evidence in accordance with Greek Law 3028/2002 on the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General, along with these business records, kicked-off one, if not the, singularly most important and protracted illicit trafficking investigations to be undertaken in Greece.

Christo Michaelides descended from a prominent Greek shipping dynasty, run by his father, Alexander Votsi Michaelides.  His sister is Despina Papadimitriou, was one of the four original defendants charged with cultural property crimes by the Greek prosecutor Eleni Raikou seven months after the Schinoussa and Psychiko seizures in 2006.  Other individuals originally named in that first criminal case included Despina's three adult children, Dimitri, Alexis, and Angeliki, though the court's rulings would eventually apply solely to Despina and Dimitri.

Now, nearly two decades after these objects' seizures, an Athens court has delivered what one hopes will be a final ruling against Despina and Dimitris Papadimitriou, concluding the extended courtroom drama which has dragged on for 17 years. 

Mother and son were sentenced on 22 May 2025 to three years and six months in prison, with a suspension of three years, specifically for misappropriation of monuments of particularly great value.  In addition to these brief prison sentences, a modest fine of 10,000 euros was imposed which hardly reflects the extensive public resources and years of prosecutorial effort expended by the country's prosecutors and judges in pursuing justice.

Originally accused on 22 November 2006 of illegally possessing and receiving illicit antiquities, the Papadimitrious, were first convicted at the end of July 2018 by the E (5th) 3 member Appeal Penal Court of Athens who stated:

"The Court by majority found guilty Despina and Dimitri Papadimitriou for the act of embezzlement of monuments and convicted each one of them to suspended imprisonment of 4 years. It also ratified the seizure and ordered the confiscation of the seized items."

According to Greek Law No. 3028/02, “On the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General” (article 56), destruction, damage or alteration of a monument, as well as theft or embezzlement of monuments, (articles 53 and 54 respectively) are punishable acts in Greece.  

According to that indictment, the defendants unlawfully appropriated: 

"ancient monuments, cultural goods dating back to prehistoric, ancient, Byzantine and post-Byzantine times until 1830." (Greek «ιδιοποιήθηκαν παράνομα αρχαία μνημεία, πολιτιστικά αγαθά που ανάγονται στους προϊστορικούς, αρχαίους, βυζαντινούς και μεταβυζαντινούς χρόνους έως και το 1830»)

And as stated in the hearing that referred them to the audience of the Triennial Court of Appeal of Athens: 

"There is an aim of income generation and a constant propensity to commit the crime, which is directed against the State, the embezzlement of monuments as an element of their personality."(Greek «Προκύπτει σκοπός για πορισμό εισοδήματος και σταθερή ροπή προς τη διάπραξη του εγκλήματος, που στρέφεται κατά του Δημοσίου, της υπεξαίρεσης μνημείων ως στοιχείο της προσωπικότητάς τους».)

In 2022, despite the breadth of the incriminating evidence collected by investigators, a Five-Member Athens Court of Appeal overrode the lower court decision and moved to acquit the Papadimitrious of monument embezzlement, citing insufficient proof of the crime.  That ruling was then reversed by Greece’s Fifth Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court who criticised the Appellate Court's decision citing that it exceeded its authority, since, among other things, it selectively assessed the evidence that emerged during the hearing and had issued its acquittal of the defendants without sufficient reasoning. 

That decision sent the case back for retrial in 2025, paving the way for this year's proceedings before a new panel of judges, distinct from those who had previously acquitted the pair. 

Last week, in issuing its convictions, the court rejected the Papadimitrious' defence, citing the scope of the collection and significant gaps in provenance.  Undeterred and well-resourced, the family plans to continue litigating. 

According to their lawyer, the Papadimitrious will appeal the conviction to the Greek Supreme Court, an option readily available to those for whom time is no constraint and money no object.  Until then, their distinguished guests will continue to rub elbows with the elite, arriving in various ways to the Cycladic island, some by helicopter, others on ultra-luxury yachts, visiting the emblematic island home of the shipping family who only received a slap on the wrist.

By:  Lynda Albertson

In the tangled web of organised crime, illicit art dealings can sometimes serve as both currency and collateral.  The ongoing trial of "Flor B.,"a Belgian national with a shocking criminal resume and a growing reputation as one of Europe's most dangerous narco-traffickers, has taken a dramatic turn into the world of cultural crime.  Dubbed the “Bongoking” in encrypted chat logs, this individual has been linked by prosecutors to the high-profile theft of Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer, a 17th-century masterpiece by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, stolen on 26 August 2020 from the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden Museum in Leerdam, housed on the Kerkstraat.

The first lead on this case came in early 2021, when White Hat cyber-exploit hackers in the European police cracked SKY ECC's EncroChat encryption software, a chat service app that only ran on specially configured Nokia, Google, Apple and BlackBerry phones.  Listening in, the law enforcement officers struck intelligence gold.  By 2023, officers had intercepted some 115 million criminal conversations, by an estimated 60,000 users in which criminals openly negotiated, sometimes in extremely granular detail, money laundering, murders, counterfeiting, drugs, and firearms trafficking.  

In some of these messages and voice recordings, shared both in group chats and one-on-one conversations, members of this drug network coordinated cocaine shipments, talked about their connections with South America drug barons, bragged about violent exploits, and discussed the recent high-profile art theft.

Just two weeks after the museum theft in Leerdam, in messages from the police-cracked app which are now part of trial records, occurred between an individual going by the chat handle Bongoking (Flor B's alleged pseudonym) who discussed the recently filched 17th-century painting, bragging about negotiating a lower purchase price.  

In selected texts released to the public Bongoking writes:

“I recently bought a Frans Hals, 2 laughing boys,” 

“Paid dearly, brother… Asked for 750, settled for 550.” 

Authorities believe this figure represents €550,000, the price the speaker paid for the stolen painting.  He chillingly outlines the painting's purpose in the same chat: not as a collector’s trophy, but as a strategic asset—something to potentially barter for leniency in relation to his wife's role in the criminal's illegal affairs.

“It won’t work for me, brother. But I might still be able to keep my wife out of jail with it, you know,” he wrote, anticipating his own eventual downfall.

He also talked about his construction of a private airport in Equatorial Guinea, used to exploit a shipping loophole which allowed cocaine to flow more easily into the Benelux as part of the kingpin's rapidly expanding criminal enterprise. 

Already a fugitive from justice, the discerning kingpin was in hiding in Switzerland, where for 20 months, he is alleged to have run his international drug cartel from various luxury properties unchallenged.  To do so he used the names Artur Gitta or later Georgios Kandylidis.  His wife for her part became known first as Simone Jung and then as Alexandra Sapranova.  That is until shortly before midnight on 16 February 2022 when both their crime-filled lives caught up with them.   

Following an intensive manhunt, Flor B. and his wife were arrested at a luxury 22nd floor apartment in the exclusive Renaissance residence (Mobimo Tower) in the heart of Zürich West.  The couple's infant son was sleeping in his crib in the next room when law enforcement officers raided the highrise.

Taken into custody, Flor B will be held at the Pöschwies correctional facility for eight months before being extradited to Belgium where he is placed in solitary confinement at Poort van Beveren, a state of the art, high security penal institution while his case in Begium proceeds.  His wife is initially held at the Dielsdorf women's prison in special prison accommodation for offenders with small children.  She will remain there for eight months before being released, and subsequently also extradited to Belgium.  

Flor B's legal team, led by attorney Yehudi Moszkowicz, disputes the prosecution’s interpretation of the messages related to the stolen painting.  Moszkowicz insists his client denies authorship of the incriminating texts and criticises the one-sided nature of the evidence, pointing out the absence of full chat transcripts, as well as the identity of the recipient. “These chats do not show that the sender of the messages actually has access to the painting,” he argued, suggesting the possibility of exaggeration.

But this is far from Flor B’s only serious criminal allegation.  The breakthrough in the SKY ECC cryptophone app exposed this network's trafficking operations, which investigators say revealed the young man as a central figure in a massive European drug empire.  His purported alias Bongoking surfaced repeatedly in communications linked to the importation of more than 16 tons of cocaine, valued at €400 million.  The message also allegedly tie him to violent networks in South America and the Netherlands.  Among the most startling revelations is his alleged orchestration of a drug smuggling scheme using Kriva Rochem, an Antwerp-based water treatment firm that doubled as a front business for cocaine importation.

In closing, the alleged link between Flor B., and his potential connection to the Frans Hals painting is remarkably similar to the thefts of two Van Gogh paintings which ended up in the hands of Camorra-linked mafia boss Raffaele Imperiale.  Likewise last December Stefan Papić, a member of the drug cartel Tito and Dino and considered to be the right-hand man of Flor B was arrested on the basis of a warrant from Belgium.  Papić had opened an art gallery Puro Arte in Breda which is suspected of being used to launder the proceeds of crime.  All three illustrate transnational organised crime figures who are members of massive drug cartels and who dabbled in the world of artistic works with the motivation of using them to launder the proceeds of crime, or use them as collateral or leverage in negotiations, whether in backrooms, on smart phones, or ultimately, in courtrooms during plea deals.

Unfortunately as Flor B's trial continues, the Frans Hals painting remains missing and its fate remains uncertain.  What we do know is that its value is immense not only in monetary terms but as a documented example of how deeply organised crime can entrench itself in the cracks of legitimate society.  Whether hanging in museums or hidded in a drug lord's hideaway, the convergence of fine art and criminal finance continues to challenge the boundaries of law enforcement, and the integrity of the art world itself.

Art advisor and gallerist Oghenochuko "Ochuko" Ojiri pleaded guilty today in Westminster Magistrates' Court to eight counts of failing to disclose information about transactions in the regulated art market sector, contrary to section 21A of the UK's Terrorism Act.  His case marks the first time an individual has been prosecuted under this specific offence and highlights the increasing scrutiny the art market faces as a potential conduit for illicit financial activities, including those that could fund terrorism.

Ojiri previously was affiliated with Pelicans & Parrots, established in 2010 in London and directed the Ramp Gallery in Hackney which  specialises in works by emerging and contemporary artists.  His business operates under the registered business name Jessomey Ltd. 

In November 2021, Ramp Gallery was rebranded as Ojiri Gallery and moved its primary gallery operations to the heart of Shoreditch in the former 2,120 sq ft Carl Freedman space on Charlotte Road.  The original gallery location in Dalston, then became known as Ojiri Projects.

Ojiri Gallery, London

Known for his appearances on the popular BBC shows Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, Ojiri was arrested on these charges on 18 April 2023 following an investigation conducted by the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit, part of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command. The Treasury, HMRC, and Scotland Yard's Arts & Antiques Unit were also involved in the probe.

Lyndon Harris, for the prosecution, outlined investigators’ findings in which the Nigerian-British art dealer was identified as having conducted a series of transactions between October 2020 and December 2021 totalling £138,150, through the sale of artworks to Nazem Said Ahmad, a Lebanese Shia diamond dealer and prominent contemporary art collector.

This occurred despite Ojiri knowing that, as early as 13 December 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had already  designated Ahmad as a a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224. This US designation was pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, for materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial or technological support to Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group.

In building their case in London, law enforcement officers gathered evidence that Ojiri was aware of Ahmad's designation, had accessed news reports about it, and had engaged in discussions acknowledging the collector’s ties to Hezbollah.

On 18 April 2023, the UK government also imposed sanctions on Ahmad under the Counter-Terrorism (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, freezing all his UK-based assets and prohibiting UK individuals or businesses from engaging in transactions with him or with his affiliated entities: White Starr DMCC, Bexley Way General Trading LLC, Best Diamond House DMCC, Sierra Gem Diamonds Company NV, Park Ventures SAL, or the Artual Gallery.  UK authorities allege Ahmad used the London art market to circumvent sanctions through a complex web of companies used to launder funds via transactions involving numerous UK-based artists, galleries, and auction houses.  In May 2023, the UK's National Crime Agency seized 23 paintings worth approximately £1 million from Ahmad, underscoring the scale of his operations.

Based on the evidence presented, Ojiri, represented by Barrister Gavin Irwin, pleaded guilty to all eight charges of failing to disclose his dealings with the sanctioned collector.  Each count is said to relate to an individual artwork sale, with pieces subsequently exported to Dubai or Beirut.

Facing up to five years in prison, Ojiri was released today on conditional bail requiring him to surrender his passport and refrain from applying for any travel documents.

He has been scheduled for sentencing at the Old Bailey on 6 June 2025.