Dr. Erin Thompson, a New York Professor recently wrote about this, now restituted Roman marble portrait bust of a bearded man which was sold by Phoenix Ancient Art in 1998 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  When it was sold, this marble portrait of a vigorous middle-aged man with sharply turned head and piercing gaze was said to have been part of the collection of Belgian-born, Neuchâtel resident André Lagneau, who had gotten it in 1977 from the Geneva collector Pierre Sciclounoff.  At the time, we thought the piece may have originated in Libya. 

Sciclounoff (1926-1997), who moved to Geneva from Bulgaria, was a powerful attorney and businessman in the city who is known to have been a friend and advisor to other powerful men of the period including Aristotle Onassis, Edward Kennedy, the Geneva Rothschilds, and J. Paul. Getty.  He was also an avid and wealthy collector, filling his 50-room mansion with art and antiquities while becoming a patron to the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (MAH) in Geneva, although he seldom visited it.  

Jacques Chamay, a problematic curator from this Geneva museum, wrote a memoir of sorts about Sciclounoff's important collection of Greek vases, many of which, from southern Italy, have problematic provenances as well as a second book about the disbursal of specific pieces once part of the Sciclounoff collection. 

Chamay's first book about this collection was published through the Hellas & Roma association (started by Chamay) in its 19th volume, which assisted in providing a veneer of legitimacy to ancient objects in the collection which otherwise had no prior collecting history, aside from their initial purchase by the Geneva-based lawyer.  Chamay published a second volume of Sciclounoff's collection, Céramiques de grande Grèce et autres antiquités : Pierre Sciclounoff collectionneur et mécène, 1926-1997 in 2021.  It presented forty additional antiquities in the attorney's collection, including a grouping of astonishing monumental vases with mythological and funerary themes, several of which have never been studied, nor previously published on. 

Sciclounoff is also known to have been purchased a forged Vermeer, painted by Hans van Meegeren, formerly in the collection of Hermann Wilhelm Göring via a transaction with the Dutch arms dealer Daniël George van Beuningen. That work was returned to van Beuningen’s family after the conclusion of World War II and the family in turn gave it to Pierre Sciclounoff, its Geneva-based lawyer.  

Sciclounoff also had transactions with Christian Boursaud, who opened Galerie Hydra with Giacomo Medici. He also conducted business with the Swiss classical archaeologist and art dealer Christoph Leon, who brokered the J. Paul Getty Museum’s 1993 purchase of the looted Greek gold funerary wreath for $1.1 million, as well as the 1984 sale of all twenty-one pieces of Apulian pottery, looted from a single grave, which were later restituted from the Altes Museum.

Aside from Sciclounoff's mention in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's accession record for the Roman marble bus of a bearded man when it was acquired by the museum, ARCA didn't find any related open source evidence connecting this bust to either the Sciclounoff collection or of him having sold a bust of this description on/around 1977 to André Lagneau. 

So who was André Lagneau? 

ARCA began cataloguing Lagneau's pieces in circulation by Phoenix Ancient Art, in 2017.  Back then, the Aboutaams Swiss investigation was gathering steam, and it wasn't until 2019 that Paris Match reporter Frédéric Loore reported that Ali Aboutaam had been charged in Switzerland with VAT fraud, concealment and breach of the law on the transfer of cultural goods.

While the open source digital footprint André P. Lagneau was very small, who could see that he was purportedly an archaeologist and ethnographer, as well as a subject matter expert in Switzerland who studied to the doctorate level.  According to a single open-source record, Lagneau purportedly also collaborating with federal customs, and at least one UN agency.  

A biography published on the website Art Passions in 2015 stated that Lagneau was at some unnamed date responsible for the detailed inventory and the reorganisation of the ancient Egyptian collections at the Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel, for which he wrote and published a brief explanatory brochure.  He was also known to have collaborated with Jacques Chamay, who he visited at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (MAH) in Geneva. 

Exploring further, ARCA documented more than twenty-five eclectically diverse artefacts tagged with Lagneau's name as the prior owner, several of which, listed below, are found in other notable museum collections.  All have demonstratable proof that they were once in circulation via the Aboutaams or other art market actors, who are documented as having possessed, and/or circulated, problematic antiquities. 

Take for example the following: 

This Black-Figure Mixing bowl (krater) with sprinters at the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston was sold by Phoenix Ancient Art in 1998.  André Lagneau attested that this krater had been in his collection, and that he had acquired it in 1975 from his friend, Pierre Sciclounoff.

This 500 BCE Archaic-period terracotta oil lamp was gifted in 2001 to the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum by Dina and Hicham Aboutaam. Its ownership history is recorded as being: 

an integral part of the personal collection of a Belgian family. The family of Dr. Andre Lagneau moved from Belgium to Geneva, Switzerland in 1961. They now live in Neuchatel.

Yet, no mention is given as to when or how or from whom Lagneau acquired it from. 

This diminutive 2900–2350 BCE, Mesopotamian (Sumarian) votive statue of a male cupbearer, with large inlaid eyes, bear to the waist and wearing a kaunake, was purchased by the Saint Louis Art Museum from Phoenix Ancient Art, S.A. on 28 September 2000.  It comes with a letter dated May 18, 2000 from Andre Lagneau purportedly confirming that the figurine was acquired by his father, Alfred Lagneau, sometime in the 1950s, from a cousin, Auguste Hiermaux, who was an officer in the Belgian army occupying Germany. 

Dr. André Lagneau, Switzerland, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Antiquarium Ltd. New York, 1996, no. ANT 1375 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1997, by purchase.

Planned as a focal point of the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester's Egyptian collection, this 332 BCE-30 BCE, Ptolemaic Period anthropoid coffin, nested in the rectangular outer coffin, has eyes decorated with shell and stone, eyelines and chin lines of inlaid glass, and a face of gold leaf gilding.  Both pieces were purchased by the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester via the Marion Stratton Gould Fund in 2000 with a provenance of: 

Private collection, Lucerne, Switzerland; purchased from that owner by the family of Dr. Andre P. Lagneau, Neuchatel, Switzerland, ca. 1970; purchased from Dr. Lagneau by Francis Wilhelm, Geneva (dealer); purchased from him by Antiquarium, Ltd., New York (dealers); purchased from them by the Gallery, 2000.

Note: This is the same New York gallery that the New York Times reported earlier this month had recently surrendered 20 valuable ancient artifacts linked to the trafficker Douglas A.J. Latchford.

This portrait head of a middle-aged bearded Plato shows chips and damages above the right eyebrow and across the forehead.  His nose is also broken.  This artefact was purchased on 9 June 2011 by Yale University Art Gallery during a sale at Christie's New York as Lot 200. 

According to an attestation signed and dated 21 May 2011 by Lagneau and provided by the consignor of the artefact, Lagneau saw the bust in the apartment of Byron Zoumboulakis, Geneva, in the second half of the 1960s on the occasion of a visit to Zoumboulakis’s apartment gallery at the Rue de la Taconnerie in Geneva, with Niklaus Dürr, Curator at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva. 

This 2000 BCE Mesopotamian lama deity with the head of a man and the body of a reclining bull was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts - Houston in 2003.   It's provenance is listed as: 

Alfred Lagneau (d. 1979), by the early-1950s–1979; by inheritance to his nephew, André Lagneau, Neuchatel, Switzerland, from 1979;[Phoenix Ancient Art, New York/Geneva, by 2003]; purchased by MFAH, 2003.

The Museum of Fine Arts - Houston also purchased a set of mosaic panels depicting The Musical Contest between Apollo and Marsyas in 2006.

Their provenance is listed as: 

René Bursztejn-Lavigne (d. 1981) and Mercedes Alfonseca Bursztejn-Lavigne, 1970–1981; by inheritance to Mercedes Alfonseca Bursztejn-Lavigne, 1981–1988; sold through Dr. André Lagneau, Secretary General of Credit Suisse; purchased by Sleiman Aboutaam (d. 1998), Geneva, 1988–1998; by inheritance to his sons, Hicham Aboutaam and Ali Aboutaam, New York, 1998–2006; sold through [Phoenix Ancient Art, New York/Geneva]; purchased by MFAH, 2006.

In 2015 Egyptian art collector Joseph A. Lewis II and his wife Sofi, known for their problematic loaned and donated pieces, gifted these two Egyptian Ushabtis, one for Khaemwaset and one for Ramesses to the Michael C. Carlos Museum.  Said to have been found at the Serapeum in Saqqara, Egypt, both were purchased between January and March 2012 from Galerie Gunter Puhze in Freiburg, Germany with a purported provenance that stated they were acquired by Florent Dalcq from the Service des Antiquities in Egypt in 1923 and then passed on to André Lagneau. 

This Egyptian white glazed composition shabti for the Lady of the House, Inhay has a similar backstory.   

This artefact came up for sale at Bonhams, London, New Bond Street on 28 November 2017 with a provenance listed as:

Florent Dalcq (1878-1950) collection, Belgium, acquired from the Service des Antiquities (Egyptian Museum, Cairo Museum) in 1923; and thence by descent to the Andre Lagneau collection, Neuchatel.

with Galerie Puhze, Freiburg, 2011.

Private collection, North America.

It would be nice to compare the documentation concretising this 1923 transaction across all three ushabtis.  

Why I am bringing all this up? 

According to a 29 September 2021 Swiss penal order André Lagneau, in Switzerland, in a period between 1992 and 2016, was accused of having

•⁠  ⁠produced and/or signed false invoices,

•⁠  ⁠produced documents of indications of source contrary to reality,

•⁠  ⁠provided indications of source contrary to reality to be used by others,

and this, for the purpose of obtaining cultural goods, within the meaning of article 2 of the law on the transfer of cultural goods (LTBC), a pedigree aimed at dispelling suspicions of illicit provenance and/or at facilitating their customs transfer and their sale on the art market.

These facts were committed mainly within the framework of his relations with Phoenix Ancient Art and Lagneau was found guilty. 

According to the same Swiss penal order, during a hearing held 20 August 2019, at Lagneau's home, given his particularly fragile state of health, he admitted to having made false invoices and attestations in furtherance of specific antiquities sales.   

Following the Swiss six-year investigation into the provenance of 15,000 antiquities, Ali Aboutaam pled guilty to charges of violating Swiss law on the transfer of cultural properties on 10 January 2023, admitting to the use of forged provenance documents.  He was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence, a three-year probation term, and ordered to pay 450,00 Swiss Francs (approximately $488,000) in legal costs to the Geneva Police Tribunal.

Listed as "a passionate collector" with the initial's "BM" (one convenient letter off from his actual initials of "AL") this November 2021 SwissInfo news article, cites that André Lagneau was convicted of forgery in relation to this antiquities scheme and sentenced to a suspended fine of 4,500 francs at the age of 86.  His sentence was relatively light due to his advanced age and the statute of limitations having expired for several of the offences which were committed between 1992 and 2006. 

In the end, André Lagneau died, at age 89, on 2 June 2023 in Neuchâtel.  He was never questioned about the veracity of his paperwork and attestations in relation to any of the objects sold or donated to the 9 museums in the United States mentioned in this article.  

Taken together, these transactions raise a narrow but serious legal and evidentiary point.  Where a museum acquisition depends on a prior owner’s attestation, and that same individual is later convicted of producing false invoices or false provenance statements in connection with antiquities sales, the evidentiary value of any unsupported provenance associated with that individual is necessarily diminished.  This does not, by itself, prove that every object linked to Lagneau is illicit.  It does, however, mean that museums, dealers, and researchers can no longer treat his attestations as neutral or self-authenticating evidence.

For the Roman marble portrait bust that was restituted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the problem was not simply that its earlier collecting history remains incomplete.  The problem was that the claimed chain of ownership appeared to rest on names and documents now associated with a proven pattern of provenance laundering.  In legal and ethical terms, that distinction should matter to all museums.  A provenance gap is one kind of risk.  A provenance gap bridged by a later-discredited attestation is another.

The Lagneau-linked material dispersed across these major American museums should therefore be reviewed with heightened scrutiny.  Institutions that acquired objects through Phoenix Ancient Art, Antiquarium Ltd., Galerie Puhze, or other market actors or collectors associated with these known chains of criminality should not wait for law enforcement intervention before reassessing their files.  Due diligence is not satisfied by preserving old paperwork in an acquisition file when that paperwork has become materially unreliable.

At a minimum, museums should publicly disclose the underlying documents accompanying these objects which supports these purported provenances, identify which statements depend solely on Lagneau’s attestations or invoices, and distinguishing between independently corroborated ownership histories and unsupported market narrative.  Where no credible pre-1970 or lawful export history can be established, continued retention becomes increasingly difficult to justify.

By:  Lynda Albertson

Christie's 2019 Auction

In November 2019, ARCA published a blog post raising questions about a 5th-century BCE polychrome antefix depicting a dancing maenad, which had been consigned to a Christie’s auction and that I believed the piece warranted closer scrutiny. For those unfamiliar, an antefix is a decorative architectural element once placed along the eaves of ancient roofs to conceal the joints between tiles.

What drew my attention was the striking resemblance between the object at right and three other Etruscan antefixes, also portraying maenads, that had previously been repatriated to Italy after being identified as having been illegal excavated and removed from Italy.

The provenance of the previous, 2019-consigned, antefix up for auction at Christie's read:

Provenance:

"with Ingrid McAlpine (1939-2018), London and Epsom, 1994". 

In terms of its circulation history, that sparse entry left roughly 2,500 years unaccounted for as nothing prior to 1994 was specified.  Knowing a bit about the consignor's background, I knew, that before her death, Ingrid McAlpine had been married to the ancient art dealer Bruce McAlpine, and that prior to their divorce, both were listed as proprietors of McAlpine Ancient Art Limited in the United Kingdom.

The McAlpines’ names have surfaced in connection with other trafficked antiquities that passed through the legitimate art market. Among these is an Attic black-figured hydria which reached the McAlpines through Palladion Antike Kunst, a gallery operated by disgraced dealer Gianfranco Becchina. Their names also appear alongside the red flag names of Robin Symes and Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman, in relation to the donation of a looted Apulian bell-krater, both objects of which were later restituted to Italy. 

Villa Giulia, 1937 Excavation

If you look carefully, by her feet you can make out the hoof of the Silenos this lady would have been dancing with.  

This detail is remarkably similar to the antefix in the form of a Maenad and Silenos Dancing which once graced the cover of the exhibition catalog A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleishman.  

After careful restoration that antefix was first seen on the market with Robert Hecht who sold it to the Hunt collection.  Next it was circulated via Sotheby's with that collection was liquidated and bought by Robin Symes, who immediately resold it to the Fleischmanns.  In1994 the couple exhibited the piece , along with their entire collection, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, before it was formally acquired by   the museum in 1996 (96.AD.33).  The piece was restituted to Italy after it was matched by Daniela Rizzo and Maurizio Pellegrino to a polaroid in the Giacomo Medici archive.  Like the one up for sale at Christie's now, both artefacts were broken along the lower half and when whole, depicted a Silenos dancing behind the Maenad.

Now let's look at the provenance the auction house has cited.

Elsa Bloch-Diener (1922–2012) was a Swiss art dealer who operated a gallery at Kramgasse 60 in the old town of Bern.  She is known to have collaborated with Ines Jucker (née Scherrer, 1922-2013), the scholar and sometimes ancient art dealer responsible for the exhibition catalogue Italy of the Etruscans, cited in the Christie’s lot description as an exhibition where this piece was on view to the public. 

Jucker not only authenticated works for Bloch-Diener but also curated the 1991 Etruscan exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem referenced in the Christie's sale.  Also contributing to that exhibition's catalogue were entries by Giovannangelo Camporeale, Fiorella Cottier-Angeli, George Ortiz, and Christoph Reusser, names that have, at times, prompted debate and concern within the field.

In May 2002, when Swiss and Italian authorities raided Gianfranco Becchina's Antike Kunst Palladion, as well as three of Becchina’s storage facilities in Basel, authorities seized documents which identified transactions between the Sicilian and Ines Jucker which documented that she purchased artefacts from this dealer and sold them onwards.

Along the same theme Jucker studied an Attic Red-Figured calyx krater signed by Syriskos (painter); donated by Lawrence Fleischman and his wife to the J. Paul Getty Museum which had been acquired from Robin Symes in 1988.  Pictured on Medici Polaroid it was restituted to Italy.   Likewise a Black-Figure Cup Fragment with the Capture of Silenus in the Tondo which Jucker sold to Dietrich von Bothmer was also returned to Italy.

In the Israel exhibition Jucker curated, which featured the antefix up for auction and identified it as coming from the ancient site of Veio, some four hundred Etruscan objects were presented, none of large format, some with an inscriptions.  Among them were small bronzes, ceramics, jewellery, terracottas (architectural, votive, and cinerary urns), and sculptural fragments in nenfro.  In total they represented all periods and regions of Etruscan art. 

The main nucleus of the Israel displayed ensemble came from the collection of the late Ivor and Flora Svarc, many of whose holdings would be donated to the Israel Museum.  Svarc's objects were complemented by pieces already in Israeli collections, along with loans from the collector-dealer Jonathan Rosen and other private collectors, mainly in Switzerland.  

As cited by Drs David Gill and Christopher Chippindale in Material Consequences of Contemporary Classical Collecting the vast majority of the artefacts exhibited during this exhibition were previously unpublished.  This made this public display of the items their first concretising stop towards having an art marketable pedigree. 

The fact that we know this object comes from the context of Veio, can also be found in the same catalogue as the restituted Getty atefix, A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleishman.

Page 197 refers specifically to the artefact currently up for auction:

A number of fragmentary examples of antefixes of this type, as well as of molds for producing them, have come to light at Civita Castellana (Falerii) (see Andrén; Sprenger/Bartoloni), finds which clearly prove their local manufacture. But the votive deposit of Campetti at Veii has yielded the head of a silenos of identical type and made of Veian clay (see Vagnetti 1971), which led P. J. Riis to suggest that this type of antefix was invented at Veii. The lower half of an antefix of this type with a provenance from Veii is in a private collection in Switzerland (see Jucker), and similar fragments have recently been excavated in Rome (see Cristo fani). 

With that in mind, it is necessary to return to the same question previously directed at Christie’s: 

On what evidentiary basis, supported by what verifiable documentation, did the auction house authorise the consignment of this artefact?  In the absence of any demonstrable chain of custody or export records, the decision to green-light its sale raises serious concerns regarding the robustness of the auction house’s internal due diligence procedures.

In this case, the question is not rhetorical but fundamental. Is Christie’s in possession of any concrete paperwork supporting the legitimacy of this Dancing Maenad’s appearance on the market, or was the absence of evidence simply overlooked given its publication in an exhibition, in the hope that the object’s passage through the auction process would escape closer scrutiny.

Just over a year ago, ARCA published a post highlighting suspect artefacts which passed through Michael L. Ward's variously named galleries which were worth further exploration.

In that blog post, it was noted that, according to Edoardo Almagià's Italian sentencing document, the convicted Italian dealer sold Michael Ward the following artefacts:

a. A black figure kylix;

b. A marble lion mask;

c. A  marble sculpture depicting a draped woman; 

d. A terracotta mask;

e. A torso of Aphrodite;

f. A romanesque capital;

g. A cameo female bust in marble;

h. A Roman marble urn;

i. A python crater from  Paestum  + 2 bronze vases;

j. A black figure olpe and marble torso;

k. 2 Attic craters, a hydria and abell crater.

Triade Capitolina on display at the Palazzo del Quirinale

On Monday, January 23, 2023, at 1 pm in Rome, a formal ceremony will be held regarding the return to Italy, from the United States, of 58 antiquities valued at nearly $19 million.  This event will be held at the Ministry of Culture's Sala Spadolini inside the Consiglio Nazionale al Collegio Romano.

The objects returned are the direct result of investigations in the United States regarding international traffickers of antiquities conducted by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit at the District Attorney's Office in New York in Manhattan, in collaboration with the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (TPC).  

Present for the event will be the Italy's Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano,  the Deputy Prosecutor of the Republic at the Court of Rome, Angelantonio Racanelli; the Commander of the Carabinieri TPC, General B. Vincenzo Molinese; and New York Assistant District Attorney Col. Matthew Bogdanos. 

This event will be direct streamed via the YouTube channel of Italy's Ministry of Culture for those who wish to attend the ceremony digitally. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-RcYKNBHtk&ab_channel=MiC_Italia

Marble head of Athena, ca. 200 BCE

In discussing these returns in a press release issued by the New York County District Attorney's Office, the New York authorities stated that these artefacts had been trafficked by Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Becchina, Pasquale Camera and Edoardo Almagiá.  Twenty one of the pieces had been seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art while the other thirty-seven were recovered from a New York collector and an antiquities dealer.

When speaking of these objects homecoming to Italy, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., was quoted as saying:

“These 58 pieces represent thousands of years of rich history, yet traffickers throughout Italy utilised looters to steal these items and to line their own pockets. For far too long, they have sat in museums, homes, and galleries that had no rightful claim to their ownership.”  

Discussing the recent Italian restitutions Bragg also addressed the difficulty and time needed to work these complicated cultural property crime cases stating:

“Exposing these schemes takes years of diligent and difficult investigative work, and I applaud our team of prosecutors and analysts, who in coordination with our law enforcement partners, are continuing to make unparalleled progress in returning stolen antiquities.”  

Assistant US District Attorney Col. Matthew Bogdanos, who heads up the Manhattan Office's Antiquities Trafficking Unit, and who will be present at Monday's ceremony, has often related his department's work to an axiom of jurisprudence “that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.” R v. Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy, 1 KB 256, 259 (1924).  Something this publicly streamable restitution will undoubtedly demonstrate.  

Each of these objects should be viewed as a reminder to collectors, dealers, and art institutions, that the US authorities treat stolen cultural property seriously and public prosecutors continue to pursue the rightful return of plundered goods.

Image Credit - HSI - ICE

As part of that historic accord, the museum also relinquished a red-figured Attic amphora by the Berlin Painter; a red-figured Apulian Dinos attributed to the so-called Darius Painter; a psykter with horsemen; a Laconian kylix, and 16 rare Hellenistic silver pieces experts determined were illegally excavated from Morgantina in Sicilia.  It also included a carefully-worded clause which stated:

I) The Museum in rejecting any accusation that it had knowledge of the alleged illegal provenance in Italian territory of the assets claimed by Italy, has resolved to transfer the Requested Items in the context of this Agreement. This decision does not constitute any acknowledgement on the part of the Museum of any type of civil, administrative or criminal liability for the original acquisition or holding of the Requested Items. The Ministry and the Commission for Cultural Assets of the Region of Sicily, in consequence of this Agreement, waives any legal action on the grounds of said categories of liability in relation to the Requested Items.

Admitting no wrongdoing, where there surely was some, this unprecedented and then-considered watershed resolution, put an end to a decades-old cultural property dispute, with both sides choosing the soft power weapon of collaboration and diplomacy, complete with agreed upon press releases that enabled Italy to get its stolen property back without the need for costly and sometimes fruitless litigation.  

The signing of this 2006 agreement was thought to usher in a new spirit of cooperation between universal museums and source nations that those working in the field of cultural restitution hoped would permanently alter the balance of power in the international cultural property debate.  At the time of its signing at the Italian cultural ministry, the Met's then-director, Philippe de Montebello, said the agreement "corrects the improprieties and errors committed in the past."

Heritage advocates applauded the agreement, hopeful that museums around the globe would begin to more proactively explore their own problematic accessions and apply stricter museum acquisition policies to prevent looted material from entering into museum collections.  Coupled with collaborative loan agreements, museums and source country accords like this one, combined with strongly worded ethics advisories, like the one set forth that same year by the International Council of Museums in their ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums should have served to eliminate the bulk of problematic museum purchases and donations without the need for piece by piece requests for restitution and protracted and costly litigation. 

But has it? 

The aforementioned ICOM document clearly states: 

4.5 Display of Unprovenanced Material

Museums should avoid displaying or otherwise using material of questionable origin or lacking provenance. They should be aware that such displays or usage can be seen to condone and contribute to the illicit trade in cultural property.

8.5 The Illicit Market

Members of the museum profession should not support the illicit traffic or market in natural or cultural property, directly or indirectly.

Yet, here we are, 16 years after that signing of the Met-Italy accord, with the same universal museum [still] hanging on to and displaying material of questionable origin, long after their questionable handlers have been proven suspect. Likewise, 16 years later, and with the persistence of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit at New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan, we see another 21 objects being seized last month from the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere.   

In total, some 27 artefacts have been confiscated in the last year from the Metropolitan Museum of Art,  In 2022 alone, five search warrants have resulted in seizures of pieces from within the museum's collection,  demonstrating that the Met, and other universal museums like it, (i.e., the Musée du Louvre and the Louvre Abu Dhabi) have yet to satisfactorily master the concepts of “provenance” research and “due diligence”. 

Founded in 1870, the MMA's mission statement states that it "collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across time and cultures in order to connect all people to creativity, knowledge, ideas, and one another."  Yet, despite holding many problematic artefacts purchased, not only the distant past, but also in the recent, the Met still struggles with the practical steps it should be taking regarding object provenance and exercising due diligence, both before and after accessioning purchases and donated material into their collection.

As everyone [should] know by now, the concept of provenance refers to the history of a cultural object, from its creation to its final destination.  Due diligence, on the other hand, refers to a behavioural obligation of vigilance on the part of the purchaser, or any person involved in the transfer of ownership of a cultural object, (i.e., museum curators, directors, legal advisors etc.,).  This need for due diligence stretches beyond the search for the historical provenance of the object, but needs to also strive to establish whether or not an object has been stolen or illegally exported.  

So while we applaud the Metropolitan Museum of Art for having been fully supportive of the Manhattan district attorney’s office investigations, as has been mentioned in relation to the August 2022 seizure, we would be remiss to not  question why, in the last 16 years, and despite the fact that the “Met’s policies and procedures in this regard have been under constant review over the past 20 years,” the museum has still not addressed these problematic pieces head on.  

This museum is home to more than two million objects. Despite the responsibility and gravitas required for building and caring for such a large collection of the world's cultural and artistic heritage, the Met has yet to establish a single dedicated position, with the requisite and necessary expertise, to proactively address the problematic pieces it has acquired in the past, and to serve as a set of much needed set of breaks, when evaluating future acquisitions, so that the next generation of identified traffickers, don't also profit from the museum's coffers as they did with the $3.95 million dollar golden coffin inscribed for Nedjemankh and five other Egyptian antiques worth over $3 million confiscated from the museum under a May 19 court order.  

For the most part, provenance has been carried out haphazardly, and by only one or two people, working in specific departments, primarily in curatorial research rolls that only covering specific historical time frames or one or two material cultures. The lack of that comprehensive expertise brings us to apologetic press statements and a plethora of seizures like ones we have seen over the last year.  

But moving on to what was seized at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 13 July 2022. The $11 million worth of objects include: 

a. A bronze plate dated ca. 550 BCE ,measuring 11.25 inches tall, and valued at $300,000.  

This artefact was donated by Norbert Schimmel, a trustee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who, during his tenure, was member of the Met's acquisitions committee.  By 1982 he was known to be purchasing antiquities from Robin Symes via Xoilan Trading Inc., Geneva.  This firm shared a Geneva warehouse address (No. 7 Avenue Krieg in Geneva) with two of Giacomo Medici’s companies, Gallerie Hydra and Edition Services.

Symes is noted as being one of the leading international merchants of clandestinely excavated archeology.  His name appears in connection with four different objects in this Met seizure. 

__________

b. A marble head of Athena, dated ca. 200 BCE, measuring 19 inches tall and valued at $3,000,000.  

This Marble Head of Athena was with Robin Symes until 1991, then passing to Brian Aitken of Acanthus Gallery in 1992.  It was then sold to collectors Morris J. and Camila Abensur Pinto, who in turn, loaned the artefact to the Met in 1995.  It was then purchased by the Metropolitan in 1996.  

Symes's name appears in connection with four different objects in this Met seizure, while Aitken's name comes up frequently as having bought from red flag dealers.  His name appears in connection with two different objects in this Met seizure. 

__________

c. A fragmentary terracotta neck-amphora, dated ca. 540 BCE, measuring 14.75 inches tall and valued at $350,000. 

This fragmented neck-amphora was purchased by the Met from Robert Hecht (Atlantis Antiquities) in 1991.  Four years later, Hecht's name would appear in seized evidence outlining his key position at the top of two trafficking cordata on a pyramid org chart which spelled out seventeen individuals involved in one interconnected illicit trafficking network.  

Archaeological artefacts sold by Hecht have been traced to the collections of the Met, the British Museum, the Musee du Louvre, and numerous other U.S. and European institutions, many of which have been determined to have come from clandestine excavations.

Polaroids photographs of this artefact, shot after the advent of Polaroids in 1972, are among the seized materials found within the Giacomo Medici archive.  These photos  depict the neck-amphora balanced precariously on a rose-colored upholstered chair. 

As mentioned above, Hecht's name appears in connection with three different objects in this Met seizure. 

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d. A terracotta red-figure kylix, dated ca. 490 BCE, measuring 13 inches in diameter, and valued at $1,200,000.

This fragmented kylix was purchased from Frederique Marie Nussberger-Tchacos in 1988 and consolidated with other terracotta fragments purchased earlier from Robert Hecht in 1979. 

In 2002 Tchacos was the subject of an Italian arrest warrant in connection with antiquities laundering.  And again, as mentioned above, Hecht's name appears in connection with three different objects in this Met seizure. 

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e. A marble head of a horned youth wearing a diadem, dated 300-100 BCE measuring 14 inches tall, and valued at $1,500,000.

This marble head of a horned youth wearing a diadem passed through the ancient art collection of Nobel Prize winner Kojiro Ishiguro, another client of Robin Symes.  It was then purchased by Robert A. and Renee E. Belfer when sold by the Ishiguro family via Ariadne Galleries.  Afterwards it was gifted by the Belfers to the Met in 2012. 

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f. A gilded silver phiale, dated ca. 600-500 BCE, measuring 8 inches in diameter, and valued at $300,000. 

This long-contested gilded silver phiale was purchased via Robert E. Hecht in 1994.  As mentioned previously Hecht's name appears in connection with three different objects in this Met seizure. 

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g. A glass situla (bucket) with silver handles, dated ca. 350-300 BCE, measuring 10.5 inches tall, and valued at $400,000.

This unique glass situla was purchased by the Met through Merrin Gallery in 2000. Photos and proof of sale of this artefact are documented in the archive of suspect dealer Gianfranco Becchina.  Correspondence within in the Becchina Archive cache of business records shows communication between the Sicilian dealer and Ed Merrin and/or his gallery dating back to the 1980s.  In the book, The Medici Conspiracy, by Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini, the writers cite one letter written by Merrin Gallery to Becchina, where Becchina was asked not to write his name on the back of photos of antiquities he sent for consideration.

Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure. Merrin Gallery appears in connection with multiple objects within this seizure. 

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h. A terracotta lekythos, dated ca. 560-550 BCE, measuring 5.3 inches tall and valued at $20,000.

This terracotta lekythos was purchased from Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion in 1985 the same year Becchina sold a suspect krater by the Ixion painter to the Musée du Louvre. 

As mentioned above, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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i. A terracotta mastos, dated ca. 520 BCE, measuring 5.5 inches in diameter and valued at $40,000.

Before he even moved to Switzerland, Gianfranco Becchina was already selling to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1975.  According to the Met's records, which we believe contain a date error, this terracotta nipple-shaped cup was purchased from Antike Kunst Palladion in 1975.  However, records show that Becchina emigrated from Castelvetrano in Sicily to Basel, Switzerland after having undergone a bankruptcy procedure in 1976 and formed the Swiss business that same year.

As mentioned previously, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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j. A fragment of a black-figure terracotta plate, dated ca. 550 BCE, measuring 3 by 2.5 inches and valued at $4,000.

This fragment, attributed to Lydos, was purchased by the Metropolitan from Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion in 1985. 

As mentioned above, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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k. A fragment of a black-figure terracotta amphora, dated ca. 530 BCE, measuring 2 by 2.6 inches and valued at $1,500.

This fragment, attributed to the Amasis Painter, was purchased from Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion in 1985.

As mentioned previously, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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1. A pair of Apulian gold cylinders, dated ca. 600-400 BCE, measuring 2.25 inches in diameter and valued at $10,000. 

This pair of gold Apulian cylinders was gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1981 by Mr. and Mrs. Gianfranco Becchina.

As mentioned above, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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m. A bronze helmet of Corinthian type, dated 600-550 BCE, measuring 8.5 by 7.75 and valued at $225,000.

This helmet is one of five Met-donated helmets identified as being part of the Bill Blass collection between 1992 and 2002.  It joined the Met in 2003.  Within the Gianfranco Becchina archive is a page of five Polaroid photographs,which depict multiple bronze helmets, including those from the Bill Blass collection which are part of this seizure. 

Also, among the Becchina archive documentary material are two business documents believed to be related to these transactions. 

The first is a 1989 multi-page export document for a grouping of objects being exported to Merrin Gallery indicating the sale of three helmets, one of which is described as "one South Italian Greek Bronze Helmet of the so-called Corinthian type, with bronze pins remaining for the attachment of the lining. "

The second is a fax correspondence from Becchina to Samuel Merrin discussing some sort of transfer regarding a single helmet and Acanthus Gallery.

As mentioned previously, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.  Merrin Gallery appears in connection with multiple objects within this seizure. 

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n. A bronze helmet of South Italian-Corinthian type, dated mid-4th-mid-3rd century BCE, measuring 7.75 inches tall and valued at $125,000.

Like the previous one, this helmet is one of five Met-donated helmets identified as being part of the Bill Blass collection between 1992 and 2002.  It joined the Met in 2003.  Within the Gianfranco Becchina archive is a page of five Polaroid photographs, which depict multiple bronze helmets, including those from the Bill Blass collection which are part of this seizure. 

Also, among the Becchina archive documentary material are two business documents believed to be related to these transactions. 

The first is a 1989 multi-page export document for a grouping of objects being exported to Merrin Gallery indicating the sale of three helmets, Two of which are described as "two South Italian Greek Bronze Helmets, both decorated with incised animals, one with restings [sic] of a plume holder on top."

The second is a fax correspondence from Becchina to Samuel Merrin discussing some sort of transfer regarding a single helmet and Acanthus Gallery.

As mentioned previously, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.  Merrin Gallery appears in connection with multiple objects within this seizure. 

o. A bronze helmet of Apulian-Corinthian type dated 350-250 BCE, measuring 12 inches tall and valued at $175,000

Like the previous one, this is one of five Met-donated helmets identified as being part of the Bill Blass collection between 1992 and 2002.  It joined the Met in 2003.  Within the Gianfranco Becchina archive is a page of five Polaroid photographs, which depict multiple bronze helmets, including those from the Bill Blass collection which are part of this seizure. 

Also, among the Becchina archive documentary material are three paper business documents. 

The first is a 1989 multi-page export document for a grouping of objects being exported to Merrin Gallery indicating the sale of three helmets,  two of which are described as "two South Italian Greek Bronze Helmets, both decorated with incised animals, one with restings [sic] of a plume holder on top."

The second is a fax correspondence from Becchina to Samuel Merrin discussing some sort of transfer regarding a single helmet and Acanthus Gallery.

The third is a photocopy of this object with a red line through the image and v/ Me written below. While not conclusive, V/Me most likely refers to venduto (sold) Merrin.  

As mentioned previously, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.  Merrin Gallery appears in connection with multiple objects within this seizure. 

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p. A white-ground terracotta kylix attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter, dated ca. 470 BCE. measuring 6.5 inches in diameter and valued at $1,500,000.

This rare Terracotta kylix is the second highest value item of all 21 artefacts seized.  It joined the Met in 1979. Unfortunately it too was purchased via the Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion.

As mentioned above, Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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q. A marble head of a bearded man, dated 200-300 CE, measuring 12.2 inches tall and valued at $350,000.

This marble head of a bearded man joined the Met in 1993, purchased from Acanthus Gallery operated by Brian Tammas Aitken.  Gianfranco Becchina archive documents an October 1988 sales receipt to Aitken for "3 Roman Marble heads" for 85,000 Fr.  

As mentioned above, Aitken's name comes up frequently as having bought from red flag dealers and appears on two different objects in this Met seizure. Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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r. A terracotta statuette of a draped goddess, dated 450-300 BCE,  measuring 14.75 inches tall and valued at $400,000.

This terracotta statuette of a draped goddess was donated to the Met by Robin Symes in 2000, in memory of his deceased partner Christos Michaelides.  His name appears in connection with four different objects in this Met seizure. 

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s. A bronze statuette of Jupiter, dated 250-300 CE, measuring 11.5 inches tall and valued at $350,000.

This bronze statuette of Jupiter was acquired by the Met via Bruce McAlpine in 1997. A UK-based dealer, McAlpin had dealings with Robin Symes, Giacomo Medici, and Gianfranco Becchina.

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t. Marble statuettes of Castor and Pollux (on loan), dated 400-500 CE, measuring 24 inches tall and valued at $800,000.

The Dioskouroi had been on anonymous loan to the Metropolitan Museum since 2008 as L.2008.18.1, .2. While the Museum's loan accession record has been removed, a Met catalogue informs us that the statues were "probably from the Mithraeum in Sidon, excavated in the 19th century". 

With a bit more digging Dr. David Gill was able to get further details from the Met itself.  They indicated the pair had come from an "ex private collection, Lebanon; Asfar & Sarkis, Lebanon, 1950s; George Ortiz Collection, Geneva, Switzerland; collection of an American private foundation, Memphis, acquired in the early 1980s".

At some point along their journey, the pair passed through the Merrin Gallery where they were published by Cornelius C. Vermeule, in Re:Collections (Merrin Gallery, 1995).

While a seemingly professional photo of these objects exists in the confiscated Robin Symes Archive, that photo depicts the object prior to restoration.  In that photo,  Castor's leg, and the leg of his horse behind him, are missing.  By the time they arrive to the Met on loan, the two limbs have been reattached. 

As mentioned above, Merrin Gallery appears in connection with multiple objects within this seizure. 

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and lastly,

u. A fragment of a terracotta amphora attributed to the Amasis Painter, dated ca. 550 BCE, measuring 3.25 by 4.5 inches and valued at $2,000. 

This terracotta amphora fragment is attributed to the Amasis Painter. It is one of many examples of fragments bought via Gianfranco Becchina's gallery, Galerie Antike Kunst.  It was acquired+gifted by Dietrich von Bothmer to the Met in 1985.

Gianfranco Becchina's name or company name appears in connection with twelve different objects in this Met seizure.

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But these seized pieces are more than the sum of these numbers.  They tell us a lot about this one museum's particular lethargy in dealing with or voluntarily relinquishing problematic pieces before being handed a court order.

One thing is certain though, museums reputations certainly do not benefit when dragged into adversarial, long-winded, and sometimes costly claims for restitution.  Nor do they benefit from having their name up in lights when objects are seized on the basis of investigations the museum would have been wise to have done themselves. 

Waiting until either of the above happens also runs counter to, and impedes, the essential purposes of museums, which should be about presenting their collections in innovative ways, and fostering understanding between communities and cultures. The Met would have been better off providing open and equitable discourse about their collection's problems before their hand was forced, as waiting until after says a lot about their true collecting values. 

When museums hedge their bets, hoping that the public's memory is short, or crossing their fingers that source countries are too disorganised, too undermanned or to poor to spend hours looking for problematic works they will pay the price later.  Far better to avoid the painfully slow, one seizure after another reality, and the negative spotlight and mistrust that comes with it, by doing what all museums should be doing, i.e., conscientiously conducting the necessary provenance research and due diligence on their past and potential acquisitions.

Image Credit - HSI - ICE

To close this article, we would like to announce that today, New York DA Bragg returned 58 stolen antiquities valued at over $18 million, to the people of Italy, including a goodly number of the 21 pieces mentioned above.

Image Credit - HSI - ICE

In closing, ARCA would like to thank DA Bragg, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit; Assistant District Attorneys Yuval Simchi-Levi, Taylor Holland, and Bradley Barbour, Supervising Investigative Analyst Apsara Iyer, Investigative Analysts Giuditta Giardini, Alyssa Thiel, Daniel Healey, and Hilary Chassé; who alongside Special Agents John Paul Labbat and Robert Mancene of Homeland Security Investigations as well as Warrant Officer Angelo Ragusa of the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, Dr. Daniella Rizzo, Dr. Stefano Alessandrini, and Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis gave crucial contributions to the knowledge we have about when, and where, and with whom, these recovered artefacts circulated. 

ARCA would also like to personally thank Assistant District Attorney Bogdanos for the trust he puts in the contribution of forensic analysts inside ARCA and working with other organisation. He and his team's approach and openness has proven time and time again, that such collaboration is worthwhile and fruitful. 

By:  Lynda Albertson