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October 14, 2023

Exploring Michael Ward and some peppered-about, possibly-problematic, pieces which might have provenance problems

While there are numerous artefacts which passed through Michael L. Ward's variously named galleries which may be worth further exploration,  here is a growing list of classical world artefacts ARCA has documented (so far) as perhaps needing a closer review by their various holders.   There may be others, and we will add what we find to this posting but these are the art and artefacts we have documented so far with readily available digital footprints.  
Some have been restituted. Others, identified at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Johnson Museum of Art, at Cornell University, the Museum of Fine Art's - Boston, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Walters Art Museum and the British Museum should probably be given a closer inspection and provenance review. 

Note that this dealer also sold African and Tribal Art which is not documented within this first round-up. 

7 January 1964
A gang of thieves, break into the Museo archeologico Oliveriano di Pesaro and make off with multiple objects, one of which is this Etruscan statuette of Hercules from the 6th to the 5th century BCE. 

19 December 1979
David Meadows identified this 300 BCE Thracian round Silver Plaque is purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston and is given Object Number: 1979.620

The provenance is listed as:
1979, sold by Michael L. Ward (dealer), Brooklyn Heights, NY to the MFA. 

19 December 1979
David Meadows identified this 300 BCE Thracian round Silver Plaque is purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston and is given Object Number: 1979.621

The provenance is listed as:
1979, sold by Michael L. Ward (dealer), Brooklyn Heights, NY to the MFA. 

1981
This c. 1600 CE Corpus for Crucifix from the studio of Antonio Susini, after Giambologna is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: y1981.42

The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York; purchase by Henry Berg; 1981 gift to Princeton University Art Museum.
                                                                         
1986 
Michael Ward sells a silver applique head of a satyr, a half-human companion of Dionysos to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1986 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AM.157.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1986 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987
Dr. David Gill identified this ca. 200–150 BCE South Italian, Campanian Fragment of a lamp-filler in the form of a comic actor's mask sold by Michael Ward to the Princeton University Art Museum and given Object Number: y1987-69

No provenance details prior to Michael Ward are listed for this artefact within the Princeton University Art Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987
Michael Ward sells a silver 4th century BCE Greek Bowl to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1987 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AM.89.1.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987

Michael Ward sells a silver 4th century BCE Oinochoe to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1987 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AM.89.2.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987
Michael Ward sells a silver 4th century BCE Ladle to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1987 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AM.89.3.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987
Michael Ward sells a silver 4th century BCE strainer to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1987 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AM.89.4.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987
Michael Ward sells a 150-250 CE Roman Statuette of the Lar/Genius of Aurelius Valerius and Base to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1987 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AB.200.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1987
Michael Ward sells a 3rd century CE Roman gold with amethyst necklace to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1987 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AM.208.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1988
Michael Ward sells a 480 to 460 BCE Statuette of a Satyr to the J. Paul Getty Museum which is given Object Number: 88.AB.72

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1988 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object.

1989
Dr. David Gill identified this 5th century bronze Steelyard Weight sold to the Walters Art Museum and given Object Number: y1987-69


The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York, ca. 1977, by purchase; L. Alexander Wolfe, Jerusalem [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Sale, Frank Sternberg, Zurich, November 20, 1989, no. 423; Walters Art Museum, 1989, by purchase.

1989
This 5th century BCE Greco-Persian Intaglio seal with Artemis and deer, is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum from Michael Ward and is given Object Number: y1989-72

The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York

1989
This 5th century BCE Greek plain black Attic Mastos cup, is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum from Michael Ward and is given Object Number: y1989-72

The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York

1989
Dr. David Gill identified this 1st century BCE –1st century CE Lead-glazed cup with relief decoration purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum and given Object Number: y1989-73

The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York

1989
This Late 2nd century CE Roman, British or Gallo-Belgic Parisian ware beaker is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: y1989-74

The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York

1989
This 2nd century CE Roman Balsamarium in the form of three conjoined heads is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: y1989-75

The provenance is listed as:
Said to have been found in Sirmium, Yugoslavia; Purchased from Michael Ward, New York.

1989
Michael Ward sells a Greek bronze 500 BCE Handle of a Vessel to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1989 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AC.79.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1989 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1989
Michael Ward sells a Greek-South Italian bronze 550 BCE Side Handle of a Hydria previously with Mathias Komor to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1989 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AC.107.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1989 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1990
Michael Ward sells three Greek 550–525 BCE bronze statuettes of Banqueters to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1990 which are later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given Object Number: 96.AC.77.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1990 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1990
Michael Ward sells a Greek 550 BCE bronze Statuette of a Rider to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1990 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 and given  Object Number: 96.AB.45.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1987 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1991
Michael Ward sold a late 4th-3rd Century BCE Gold Olive Wreath to the Michael C Carlos Museum.  Object Number 1991.014

The provenance is listed as:
Ex private collection, Europe, assembled prior to early 1980s. European art market. Ex private collection, London, England, from ca. 1984-1985. Purchased by Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

1992
Michael Ward sells a 325 BCE Greek Side Panel of a Grave Naiskos with the Relief of a Young Hunter to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman in 1992 which is later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1996 Object Number: 96.AA.248.

No provenance history, prior to the Michael Ward 1992 sale, is listed for this artefact within the Getty Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1992
Michael Ward contacts the Greek Culture Ministry and shares photographs and measurements of a grouping of golden Mycenaean jewellery from the 15th century BCE, hereinafter referred to as the Aidonia Treasure, which he was considering before purchase in Early 1992.  When placed on the market a length battle begins when it is determined that these pieces were plundered in 1978 from a Mycenaean cemetery at Aidonia, near Nemea, in southern Greece.  The parties eventually settle out of court.

The objects include necklaces with lilies, large cusped rosettes from a belt, decorated gold rings, sealstones, beads, and other stylized jewellery and ornaments totalling about 50 pieces

1992
This late 2nd century CE Roman Bronze Balsamarium in the form of a hunchback, adapted for use as a steelyard weight, is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum from Michael Ward and is given Object Number: y1992-6

The provenance is listed as:
Purchased from Michael Ward, New York, in 1992.

1992
This 712-305 Bronze Egyptian Woman with Barrel-Shaped Drum is gifted by Michael Ward to the Brooklyn Museum and is given Object Number: 1992.169

No provenance details are listed for this artefact within the Brooklyn Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

1993
Dr. David Gill identified this c. 1500 BCE Large Romania, possibly Cirna, Middle Bronze Age earthenware Bowl, donated by Michael Ward in honour of Evan H. Turner to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Accession No. 1993.229 

No provenance details are listed for this artefact within the Clevelend Museum of Art's digital accession record for this object. 

1993
Michael Ward donates a Greek Corinthian mid 6th century BCE Couchant lion to the Princeton University Art Museum. 
Object No: y1993-42

No provenance details are listed for this artefact within the Princeton University Art Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

Mid to Late 1990s

Lot 3: 'a Greek silver-gilt repoussé plaque'. 'circa 540-525 BCE'. 'With winged Nike in a frontal chariot with facing quadriga, each pair of horses with heads turned to opposing sides, with finely incised details, bound lotus filling motifs, pierced around the edge for attachment, from an arm-guard'. 6.8 cm high. Unsold.

Lot 5: 'a Greek bronze goat'. 'circa 5405 BCE'. 'From a vessel lid or rim, the goat recumbent with head turned to the right, with short pointed beard and upturned tail, finely incised details, the underside with lead infill, horns partially missing'. 7.6 cm high. Sold for 9,000 GBP.

Lot 14: 'A Geometric Greek Bronze Seated Male Figure'. 'circa 750-700 BCE'. 'Seated on a stool with elbows resting on his knees and left hand to chin, with long instrument in right hand, finely detailed with striated fringe of hair at back of head and eyes rendered with depressed circles, on integral square seal base with four triangular divisions on underside, on wood mount'. 63 cm high. Sold for 28,800 GBP.

Lot 18: 'Three Laconian bronze helmeted warriors'. '6th century BCE'. 'Each animated nude standing figure standing with right arm outstretched to the side and left arm raised, with fists clenched, wearing tall crested helmet'. 6.4 cm high (max). Sold for 30,000 GBP.
 
1995  
Betsy Alley identified this 2nd century Roman Empire Lynx Head gifted to Cornell University in 1994 and given Accession No. 95.030

The provenance is listed as:
Michael L. Ward, Inc., New York, NY; before 1994, David B. Simpson; 1995, collect(…)
     
1996
Dr. David Gill identified this c. 1200 CE Cauldron Ornament donated by Michael Ward in honour of Arielle P. Kozloff  to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Accession No. 1996.312 

There is no provenance listed for this artefact. 

1996
David Meadows identified a pair of late 2nd–early 3rd century CE Roman earrings at the Dallas Museum of Art purchased via a museum credit line along with a gift of Stark and Michael Ward in honor of Virginia Nick and Anne Bromberg.  The pair are given Object Numbers: 1996.35.A-B

There is no provenance listed for this jewellery grouping. 

1997
Dr. David Gill identified this 2nd–1st century BCE Hellenistic Red Slip Bowl gifted by Lawrence A. and Barbara Fleischman in honour of Michael Padgett to the Princeton University Art Museum and given Object Number: 1997-1

The provenance is listed as:
Owned by a succession of dealers (C. Ede, H. Humbel, B. Aitken, M. Ward) before acquired by Fleischman; given to the Museum in 1997

1997
This early Byzantine vertical dial was purchased by the British Museum from Ward & Company Works of Art and assigned the Object No: 1997,0303.1

The provenance is listed as: 
Previous owner/ex-collection: Kummer
 
1997
The Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation donates a 12th century Byzantine Disk, possibly a pilgrimage token to the Princeton University Art Museum. Object No: 1997-34

The provenance is listed as: 
Museum purchase in 1997 from Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc., gift of the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation

October 1997
Michael Ward reports in the New York Times that he nearly sold out his booth to new customers, American and European at the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show.  Three of the objects mentioned at his booth are a mosaic sold to a museum, a fifth-century BCE Greek marble grave stele for $650,000 that depicts a man walking with a staff, and a $125,000 circa 800 BCE Egyptian bronze of Osiris. 

1998
This 8-9th century CE bronze finger Ring is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-336

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchase by John B. Elliott; bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 9-10th century CE Anglo Saxon bronze Applique in the form of a lion is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum from Michael Ward and is given Object Number: 1998-343

The provenance is listed as:
Michael Ward, New York; purchase by John B. Elliott; bequest to Princeton University Art Museum

1998
This 8-9th century CE Avar culture pair of Strap ends is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-360a and b

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchased by John B. Elliott; 1998 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 8-9th century CE Avar culture pair of Strap ends is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-361a and b

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchased by John B. Elliott; 1998 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 8-9th century CE Avar culture pair of Strap ends is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-362a and b

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchased by John B. Elliott; 1998 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 8-9th century CE Avar culture Strap end is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-363

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchased by John B. Elliott; 1998 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 8-9th century CE Avar culture Strap end is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-364

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchased by John B. Elliott; 1998 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 8-9th century CE Avar culture Strap end is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-365

The provenance is listed as:
Geber, Budapest. Michael Ward, NY; purchased by John B. Elliott; 1998 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.

1998
This 19-20th century CE brass Ekonda anklet is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-640

The provenance is listed as:
[Michael Ward, Inc., New York, NY]; John B. Elliott, New York, NY by 1989; Princeton University Art Museum, 1998

1998
This 12-17th century CE Djenné copper bracelet is gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum and is given Object Number: 1998-643

The provenance is listed as:
[Michael Ward, Inc., New York, NY]; John B. Elliott, New York, NY by 1989; Princeton University Art Museum, 1998

1999 through 2022
According to the Michael L. Ward Criminal Complaint, from 1999 through 2022, Eugene Alexander had a money laundering scheme in which he sold looted antiquities to European and American collectors.  

In an open source  6 September 2023 stipulation Michael Ward affirmed that he would plead guilty to Criminal Facilitation in the Fourth Degree (N.Y. Penal Law §115.00[1]), a class A misdemeanor, and as part of his plea agreement he voluntarily agreed to surrender (40) additional antiquities, or others that he or DANY identified in his possession that were sold, consigned, or previously possessed by Eugene Alexander; and that he will cooperate truthfully and fully with DANY and, if requested by DANY and with DANY's coordination, he will assist Italy and Germany in their investigation and prosecution of Eugene Alexander.

In return, the Manhattan authorities affirmed:
    • they will not pursue any additional charges or arrests of Michael Ward for any crimes arising from his antiquities dealings or business transactions with Eugene Alexander;
    • that Michael Ward will not be prosecuted in Italy for any crimes arising from his antiquities dealings or business transactions with Eugene Alexander; 
    • that no evidence developed by DANY or provided by Michael Ward to DANY will be used for any prosecution in Germany or any other country; 
    • and that, although Michael Ward's antiquities dealing and business transactions with Eugene Alexander will be described in any charging documents of Eugene Alexander, Michael Ward will not be named as a co-conspirator.
1999
Michael Ward sold a ca. 480-470 BCE Red-Figure Calyx Krater with Apollo and Artemis Offering Libations to the Michael C Carlos Museum.  Object Number 1999.011.002

The provenance is listed as:
Ex coll. Jonathan Kagan, New York, New York. Ex coll. Damon Mezzacappa (ca. 1936-2015), New York, New York. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

1999
Michael Ward sells a 4th century BCE Votive Relief with Banquet Scene to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 1999.011.003

The provenance is listed as:
With Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York, from ca. 1996. Purchased by MCCM from Ward.

1999
Michael Ward sells a 1-2nd century CE Roman Statue of Mercury to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 1999.011.005

The provenance is listed as:
Ex coll. Tempelberg Foundation, Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

2000
Michael Ward sold a 440-430 BCE Chous with Maenad and Baby Satyr to the Michael C Carlos Museum.  Object Number 2000.001.001

The provenance is listed as:
With Galerie Blondeel-Deroyan, Paris, France, November 1999. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

2000
Michael Ward sells a 6th century BCE Votive Statuette of an Enthroned Athena to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2000.006.003.

The provenance is listed as:
Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

2000
Michael Ward sells one diadem, two 1200 - 800 CCE Bronze brooches with Spirals,  and one axe blade pendant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Accession Number: 2000.281.1 lists the provenance as:
Ward & Company Works of Art (American), New York (sold 2000)

Accession Number: 2000.281.2 lists the provenance as:
Charles Ede Limited Antiquities, London (1999)]; [ Ward & Company Works of Art (American), New York (sold 2000).

Accession Number: 2000.281.3  lists the provenance as:
Ward & Company Works of Art (American), New York (sold 1989)

Accession Number: 2000.281.4  lists the provenance as:
Ward & Company Works of Art (American), New York (sold 2000)

1 January 2000
The Art Newspaper published an ancient art market survey with dealers responses to the question of how many clients do you have who spend more than $50,000 per artefact.

Michael Ward replied that he has seen his client base in this price range and higher as doubling in number over the past five years. He counts forty clients in this price bracket.

2001
Michael Ward gifts an 8th century BCE Bird Pendant to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2001.029.002.

The provenance is listed as: 
With Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York, from at least August 1997.

2001
Michael Ward gifts a 7th Century BCE Male Orant to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2001.029.001.

The provenance is listed as:
With Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York, from at least May 1999.
2002
This 530 BCE Greek Hoof, possibly from a centaur statuette is gifted by Michael Ward to the Princeton University Art Museum from Michael Ward and is given Object Number: 2002.283

No provenance details are listed for this artefact within the Princeton University Art Museum's digital accession record for this object. 

2002
This 7th century BCE Greek Double-sided seal with centaur and two men is purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum from Michael Ward and is given Object Number: 2002.284

The provenance is listed as:
Purchased from Michael Ward, NY, in 2002.

2002
Dietrich von Bothmer gifts a 480 BCE Red-Figure Amphora Neck Fragment with a Fight to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2002.043.026.

The provenance is listed as:
With Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York, from at least May 1999.

2003
Michael Ward sells a 350 to 325 BCE Seated Figure From a Grave Naiskos to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2003.005.001

The provenance is listed as: 
With Gianfranco Becchina, Basel Switzerland. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Fine Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

2003
Michael Ward gifts a 3200-2700 BCE early Cycladic Faceted Core to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2003.025.001

The provenance is listed as: 
Ex coll. K.John Hewett (1919-1994), England. Ex coll. Peter Sharrer, New Jersey, acquired from Hewett, London, England, by 1989. Loaned to San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas (L.89.1.15). Gifted to MCCM by Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

10 December 2004
A late first century BCE Roman parcel gilt silver Skyphos decorated with a Nilotic scene, some areas raised in relief, with one side centered by a grotesque man teasing a crocodile is consigned to Christie's and sells for $623,500. 

The provenance is listed as:
London Art Market, mid 1990s.
with Ward & Company Works of Art, New York, 2000.

2005
Michael and Stark Ward gift a Greek 6th Century BCE bronze Bronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youth to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accession Number: 2005.457.

No provenance details are listed for this artefact within the Metropolitan Museum of Art's digital accession record for this object. 

2005
Dr. David Gill identified this mid–4th century BCE Black-glazed calyx-cup gifted to  the Princeton University Art Museum and given Object Number: 2005-113

The provenance is listed as:
Acquired by Andrés Mata at Christie's, New York, December 10, 2004, lot 485. The consignor was Ward & Company, New York, which had acquired it from James Ede, London, who in turn had purchased it from Michael Petropoulos, Zürich, on November 13, 1999; given to the Museum in 2005

2005
Michael Ward sells a 1st century CE Roman Head of Nike to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2005.083.001

The provenance is listed as:
Ex coll. Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, LLC], New York, New York, purchased July 1999.


2005 
According to the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts document, Michael Ward sold a red-figure calyx krater, dated to the fourth century BCE to the Dallas Museum of Art stating that the vase had come from a “Swiss private collection”—the vase had actually been looted by Becchina and smuggled to Becchina’s gallery in Basel.



2007
Michael Ward sells a 2305-2152 BCE Egyptian Relief of a Funerary Ceremony to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2007.009.001

The provenance is listed as: 
Ex coll. Dr. Henry R. Hope (1905-1989), United States, acquired 1950s. Thence by descent. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, LLC], New York, New York.

By March 2010
The Krater of Koreshnica, photographed here on Flickr in 20016 was loaned to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2010 by an anonymous lender.  This artefact  is believed to have been looted on/around 1996 from a 6th century BCE Macedonian burial chamber near the village of Koreshnica, in the southern part of the Republic of Macedonia.   



2012
The stolen Etruscan statuette of Hercules stolen from the Oliveriano Archaeological Museum in Pesaro is identified by experts in Italy when the object comes up for sale with Ward & Company.  It was restituted to Italy on 24 February 2015 during a ceremony in the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan.

17 December 2013
According to the Edoardo Almagià sentencing document, the convicted 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.

Between 2015 and 2019
Michael Ward obtained more than 100 antiquities from Eugene Alexander between 2015 and 2019, 80 of which, according to the Michael L. Ward indictment, were clearly looted.

2016
Dr. David Gill identified this silver and gold late 5th – early 4th century BCE Greek Phiale with Thetis and the Armour of Achilles in a Phoenix Ancient Art 2016 catalogue for Spring Masters NYC. NB: Most gold-figured silver vessels have been found in Macedonian and Thracian tombs.

The provenance is listed as:
Ex- European private collection, early 1980s; Ward and Co., New York, USA, 1990 or prior; Ex- US pri- vate collection, New York, acquired in 1990.

2016
Michael Ward sells a 480 BCE Red-Figure Pelike with Two Youths in Conversation to the Michael C Carlos Museum. Object Number 2015.005.001

The provenance is listed as:
Ex coll. Vicomte du Dresnay, France, acquired before 1970. Purchased by MCCM from Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, LLC], New York, New York.

10 November 2022
Four 4th Century B.C.Thracian Gilt-Silver Double Eagle Plaques are auctioned at Hindman in Chicago.  The artefacts sold for just $500.

The provenance is listed as: Michael Ward Gallery, New York, prior to 1992. Lewis B. Cullman, acquired from the above in 1992.

18 October 2023
And with just 4 days until bidding opens on Sotheby's online sale of The Edith & Stuart Cary Welch Collection, I will finish my round-up with this late 5th/ early 6th century Byzantine spoon, again with only Ward and Co provenance.  

 So as ARCA always says with problematic dealers, Buyers Beware. 

By: Lynda Albertson


October 12, 2023

Unravel one antiquities looting and money laundering network and you might find another: the devil is in the details


"This Plaque was smuggled out of Italy by antiquities trafficker Eugene Alexander and into New York through the dealer Michael Ward, who was convicted this past September of Criminal Facilitation."

Inside what has come to be a rather boiler plate restitution press release announcing the return of 19 additional antiquities to Italy, the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan, slipped in a nice little Easter Egg when highlighting three of the object's heading back to Italy.  All had connections to well known antiquities traffickers, Gianfranco Becchina, Raffaele Monticelli, Jerome Eisenberg, Edoardo Almagià and Eugene Alexander. 

Along with these well-known names, the one line sentence quoted above refers to Michael L. Ward (b. 1943), the New York city antiquities dealer who managed a series of eponymous ancient art business entities, including:

  • Ward & Company Works of Art, LLC
  • Ward & Company Works of Art I, LLC
  • Ward & Company Works of Art, Inc.
  • Ward & Company, Fine Art, Inc.
  • Michael Ward Inc.

And yes, this is the same fox in the the federal government's chicken coop who was previously appointed by then-President George H. W. Bush in 1992 to serve on the United States Cultural Property Advisory Committee, the U.S. statutory body who is responsible for the domestic implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property of 1970.

Shortly after Ward's presidential appointment, the dealer found himself under the unwanted spotlight for attempting to sell 50 pieces of important Mycenaean jewellery, referred to as the Aidonia Treasure.  Dating to the 15th century BCE, these gold funerary pieces had been plundered in 1978 from a Mycenaean cemetery at Aidonia, near Nemea, in southern Greece. 

On 30 December 1993 Ward finagled his way out of his first messy situation via an out-of-court settlement wherein Greece agreed to drop their lawsuit against Ward and his gallery and Ward's gallery was allowed to donate the looted jewellery to the newly formed Society for the Preservation of Greek Heritage in Washington, D.C.   

In a stitch-up similar to Leonard Stern's later gifting of 161 works of Cycladic art via the Institute of Ancient Greek Culture of Delaware, Ward’s strategic use of, and donation to, a nonprofit charitable organisation enabled him to recoup his acquisition costs via a nice sized federal income-tax write-off.

Evidently, undeterred by this close call, the New York dealer continued to take risks, (and profited from) the purchase and sale of illicit antiquities via several networks of suppliers, who one by one, and over many years, were unveiled as corrupt. 

Ward's own "skin in the game" is clearly spelled out, beginning on page 114 of the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts document, where it is stated:

During this time, he [Ward] bought antiquities directly from known traffickers such as Giovanni Franco Becchina and Edoardo Almagià. He then sold them— typically with no listed provenance—to U.S. museums and prominent collectors, including Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman and Steinhardt. Ward’s attitude for due diligence and provenance is demonstrated by a 1992 fax to Steinhardt, in which he advises Steinhardt that “[t]he more you inquire about details of ownership, etc. the less likely you will appear (if there is, God forbid a question) a credible bona fide purchaser. Michael, you want to appear as dumb as possible!”

This document also describes Ward’s connection to the network of Italian dealer Gianfranco Becchina and as the direct purchaser of more than a dozen looted Italian artefacts documented in the business records of antiquities trafficker Edoardo Almagià.

But before highlighting just a few of the curious examples of plundered material handled by Ward, let's explore the charge he plead guilty to on September 8, 2023. 

New York Penal Law § 115.00 (1) Criminal Facilitation in the Fourth Degree

In many states, if a criminal helps another person commit a crime, they too have themselves committed a crime.  In the state of New York there are four different criminal facilitation crimes, the least serious of which, under New York Penal Law, is criminal facilitation in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor.

In order for Michael Ward to be found guilty under New York Penal Law § 115.00, the state of New York is required to prove, from all of the probative evidence gathered in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, each of the following three elements: 




Satisfying elements 1 and 2

According to Ward's criminal complaint, filed with the Criminal Court of the City of New York, County of New York on September 6, 2023, this dealer operated his gallery at 980 Madison Avenue, (between East 76th Street and East 77th) in the County and State of New York from 1982 onward, opening his first business on 4 June 1982 to be precise.  The criminal complaint also states that from 1999 through 2022, Ward facilitated a money laundering scheme initiated by Eugene Alexander which involved selling looted antiquities from several countries onward to European and American collectors.  

Alexander’s antiquities-trafficking operation, also mentioned in the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts document involved the use of local looters operating in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean who sent Alexander photos of freshly excavated antiquities.  Once selected, Alexander had the illicit objects smuggled into Germany where he had the artefacts cleaned and restored, sometimes using the restorer Flavio Bertolin and authenticating the pieces via Thermoluminescence (TL) Analysis conducted by Ralf Kotalla (who also sent authentication reports to other traffickers, including Gianfranco Becchina).  Once the artefacts had been tidied up and were ready for prime time, many of them made their way into important collections in the United States. 

Alexander is noted in Ward's indictment for circulating artefacts to individuals such as Michael Steinhardt, to Richard Beale of Roma Numismatics, and to Erdal Dere of Fortuna Galleries, among others.  To do so he used a series of shell corporations and offshore banks for payments.

In September 2020 the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York issued an indictment against Erdal Dere and Faisal Khan, the operators of Fortuna Fine Arts, charging them with defrauding antiquities buyers and brokers by using false provenances to offer and sell antiquities. That case is ongoing.   Richard Beale, the director of London-based auction house Roma Numismatics, pled guilty on 14 August 2023 to two counts of conspiracy, and three counts of criminal possession of stolen property, for his role in the sale of the gold Eid Mar coin, which fetched $4.19m (£3.29m) in 2020, and an ancient silver Sicily Naxos Coin, which sold at the same time for $292,000.

Ward's criminal complaint states that as many as 80 of Alexander's looted antiquities passed through Ward's New York gallery between 2015 and 2019.  For dozens of these, the collection histories vaguely listed their provenance as coming from an "ex Geneva private collection, acquired in the early 1990s" or similarly worded claims such as "ex Geneva private collection, acquired in the early 1980s."

Ward's complaint also states that HSI, the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recovered more than 35 of these suspect antiquities while executing a search and seizure warrant in New York on 5 September 2023 which he relinquished upon pleading guilty.  

Reviews of confiscated emails also demonstrate that Ward was involved in the facilitation of written documents which furthered Eugene Alexander's money-laundering enterprise, four of which were outlined in the complaint as: 
  • a July 30, 2017 document with Eugene Alexander, indicating that Ward accepted on consignment 89 antiquities valued at over $20 million. 
  • an October 30, 2018 document with Eugene Alexander, indicating that Ward accepted on consignment another 82 antiquities valued at over $27 million.
  • a January 10, 2019 blank form, provided by Eugene Alexander, used to state that on April 1, 2019, that Alexander had consigned or sold Ward 63 antiquities valued at over $29 million. 
  • and a January 25, 2019 document on Ward & Company letterhead with the Ward's signature that indicated Ward owed Eugene Alexander more than $4 million. 
Germany authorities, conducting a parallel investigation, executed a raid on Eugene Alexander's apartment on February 23, 2022, and recovered, among many objects, Alexander's computers, as well as incriminating correspondence between the Bulgarian dealer, traffickers, and the American gallerist.  Also recovered were photographs that looters had sent to Alexander depicting freshly looted antiquities prior to their being cleaned or restored. After the objects were made presentable, Alexander, with Ward's assistance, successfully sold many of the laundered pieces onward, with vague fabricated provenance documents and the occasional Art Loss Register certificate. 

Satisfying element 3

According to the testimony of HSI-ICE Special Agent Robert Fromkin, who reviewed the communications between Ward and Eugene Alexander, the volume of documented transactions involving looted antiquities between the two men, as well as the depiction of transactions that never actually occurred between the pair, or that repeated themselves over several documents, concretely confirmed that Ward had  rendered aid to a person, in this instance Eugene Alexander, who intended to commit a crime, and had engaged in conduct which provided said person with the means and opportunity for the commission thereof, and which in fact aided said individual, in committing a felony.

A brief look at a few of the pieces handled by Ward & Company.

Cyrene Deity - Steinhardt-Albertson Dt.76*
While the number of suspect antiquities sold by Mr. Ward to his wealthy clientele are too numerous to document in this single article, a few stand out and are worth mentioning, including this 2.5 meter tall 3rd - 2nd century BCE funerary monument, pictured at right, which represents a half-figure goddess.

A strikingly rare piece, this sculpture is likewise named in the Michael Steinhardt Statement of Facts, and was formally surrendered by the disgraced New York collector-mogul in early December 2021.  One of only ten known half-figured goddesses of this type, originating from the Necropolis of Cyrene, Steinhardt had purchased Dt.76 from Michael L. Ward on 20 November 2000 for the spritely sum of $1,200,000.   

On Ward's invoice, the plundered "Veiled Head of a Female" was described colourfully as:

“possibly from North Africa”and had “a light brown earthy deposit uniformly covering the head imparts to its surfaces an attractive, warm patina.”   

"Earthy deposits", all but screaming to the billionaire buyer that his purchase was freshly looted material, never before part of a known or established collection.   

Some Ward Objects are in important Museum Collections

In 2003 this 350 BCE Greek seated marble figure from a Grave Naiskos was accessioned into the collection of the Michael C. Carlos Museum and assigned object number 2003.005.001

From 1986 to 1992 Michael Ward is also known to have sold numerous artefacts to Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman, some of which were later donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum.   Other pieces can be found in the accession records of other US Museums. 

One object which remains a bone of serious contention is this highly contested 6th century BCE voluptuous bronze krater for mixing and storing wine. It shows definitive and was once loaned to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston by an anonymous lender.

The Krater of Koreshnica, as it has come to be known, was looted on/around 1996 
from a 6th century BCE Macedonian burial chamber near the village of Koreshnica, in the southern part of the Republic of Macedonia before being smuggled out of the country in contravention of the country's national law. 


In a January 5, 2012 article, written by journalist Vesna Ilievska, and published in Dnevnik, (Macedonian for the word "Journal"), a private daily newspaper in Macedonia, it was reported that Michel Van Rijn had information relating to the looted Krater of Koreshnica.


If Michel Van Rijn's statements are to be believed, the circulation of this looted object via Tkalec, adds yet another smuggling network to Mr. Ward's growing list of suspect supply chains. 


By:  Lynda Albertson

September 20, 2023

Seven World War II-era restitutions originating from the Collection Grünbaum

A total of seven artworks by Austrian Expressionist Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele once owned by Franz Friedrich 'Fritz' Grünbaum will be handed over in a public ceremony livestreamed today from  the office of the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan at 15:00 EST.

Each of the artworks were voluntarily relinquished by the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library in New York, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (California) and the legal representatives for the private collections of Ronald Lauder and the estate of the late Serge Sabarsky.

The artworks being returned to the collector's heirs are:


Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Edith, 1915 by Egon Schiele
Pencil on paper
Sold by Eberhard Kornfeld to Otto Kallir on September 18, 1956, and eventually gifted to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art by Wright Ludington


 Girl Putting on Shoe (Schuhe anziehendes Mädchen), 1910 by Egon Schiele
Watercolor and charcoal on paper
Sold via Eugene Thaw at the New Gallery and Bookshop in New York
Lastly with the Museum of Modern Art 


 Prostitute1912 by Egon Schiele
Watercolor and pencil on paper
Sold via Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern to Galerie St. Etienne in New York
Lastly with the Museum of Modern Art 


 Portrait of a Boy (Herbert Reiner)1910 by Egon Schiele
Guache, watercolor, and pencil on paper
Sold as per Kallir: Gutekunst & Klipstein
Galerie St. Etienne, New York
as per S.S.G. records: John Herring Inc., New York, until February 1993 
Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York since February 1993
Lastly on display at the Neue Galerie, from the estate of the late Serge Sabarsky


Self Portrait1910 by Egon Schiele
Black chalk and watercolor on brown paper
Sold via Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern (by 1956); Viktor Fogarassy (1911-1989); Rudolf Leopold (b. 1925); Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London (by 1964); Lester Avnet (1912-1970); Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York; from which acquired by Fred Ebb, New York, ca. 1966.
Lastly with the Morgan Library & Museum


Seated Woman1910 by Egon Schiele
Gouache, watercolor, and pencil on paper
Sold via Gutekunst & Klipstein, Berne October 1956; as per S.S.G. files: Thomas Messer, New York, i.e. Amides Arts Ltd., until September 1978; Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York
Lastly with Neue Galerie, from the estate of the late Serge Sabarsky


I Love Antitheses1912 by Egon Schiele
Watercolor and pencil on paper
Lastly from the private collection of Ronald Lauder

All seven of the artworks were relinquished following investigations by the Manhattan prosecutor's office.  A process to recover Grünbaum's art collection  began as early as 1998 when former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized “Dead City III”, an oil on wood painting by Schiele which Timothy Reif's, family claimed.  At the time, the Reif claim was weaker than Lea Bondi's claim for the Portrait of Wally, and Dead City III went back to Austria to the Leopold Museum.

Fast forward to 2018, and working from the basis of the civil court ruling by Judge Charles V. Ramos in the case of Reif v. Nagy in New York County Supreme Court, we finally have some justice for the family.  In his ruling Ramos concurred that the power of attorney signed on/around 20 July 1938 by the artworks' owner, Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, song writer, and actor, Franz Friedrich 'Fritz' Grünbaum, while imprisoned at Dachau Concentration Camp, and signed under extreme duress gunpoint did not represent a valid conveyance.

In making his 2018 ruling Judge Ramos also cited the introduction of the Holocaust Expropriated Recovery Act of 2016 and ruled that Grünbaum’s descendants rightfully owned two other Schiele works named in the civil proceedings, “Woman in a Black Pinafore” and “Woman Hiding Her Face.”

Grünbaum was murdered on 14 January 1941 at Dachau Concentration Camp.

As mentioned in an earlier article this month, much of Grünbaum’s extraordinary 449-piece art collection was sold through Eberhard Kornfeld, a Swiss auctioneer, and art dealer based in Bern.

Given that all seven of these Schiele artworks had been in circulation via New York  dealers, the New York District Attorney's Office held jurisdiction and could build a case for their (and other) restitutions on the basis that pursuant to a criminal investigation into Nazi looted art, by being the property of Fritz Grünbaum’s heirs: David Fraenkel, Timothy Reif, and Milos Vavra, the artworks from his collection, which have been sold onward, each constitute stolen property from the claimants according to New York state law.  

Remembering the artwork's original owner, it is said that Fritz Grünbaum never stopped entertaining people. Even as death approached at Dachau, he mocked the Nazis and found levity in the grim absurdities of life in a death camp. One former inmate remembered Fritz comforting the other inmates by arguing that absolute deprivation and systematic starvation were the best defence against diabetes.

By:  Lynda Albertson


September 18, 2023

Monday, September 18, 2023 - ,, No comments

Looters imperil unknown people's past, 37 years ago and still today.

"Looters imperil unknown people's past."  That was the title of an article written by Barbara Crossette, the Bangkok bureau chief of The New York Times on September 9th 1986.  Her report described the destruction to archeological sites caused by grave diggers operating in the densely forested mountains of western Thailand.  There, subsistence looters had been systematically plundering a wide variety of antiquities, hauling away various grave goods, including high-quality ceramics, some found at  hilltop ring-ditch burial sites that belonged to a then-unknown group of people that defied cataloguing.

Crossette told the New York Time's readership that the area's inhabitants, probably ethnic minorities, like the Karen and other minority groups, shared their remote terrain with smugglers, poachers and opium growers.  She also wrote that looters working the region sold the antiquities they found to foreign dealers who spirited them out of the country, selling the pieces onward to private collectors, including those in Japan. 

See Reference at the
end of this article
Like so many other plundered cultural sites in at-risk and remote locations, circular earthworks in and around Tak Maesot were scarred by extensively pitting. Sketched out on maps, some of the impacted burial sites had the appearance of buttons sewed onto the hillside.

But the damage done by plunderers didn't just strip away treasures.  In addition to the grave goods they stole, looters took with them many of the geological and cultural clues that could have lead us to better understand who left these graves here in the first place.  

What remained in their wake, was only a series of useless pits, scattered with broken and discarded ceramic fragments and the outline of the the graves themselves.  Archaeologists who later explored the sites have since documented that the inhabitants of the past had a vibrant trade in ceramics,  identifying pieces coming from Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese and Chinese production centres.

Unfortunately, so little remained after the thefts, that researchers still remained puzzled as to who the peoples were, who cremated their dead, placing their ashes in urns and interring them in the mountains, accompanied with valuable objects.   All that was known was that this population were likely not Burmese or Chinese, nor Khmer or Thai.  Perhaps even a transitional culture which eventually died out or merged with others from the area.

At the heart of the plunder in this area of Thailand were some 100 burial sites dating from the 12th or 13th century, up through the 16th century CE, scattered along a 60-mile swath of western Thailand between Umphang, on the Myanmar, (then-Burma) border south of Mae Sot, and north to Chiang Mai which contained the inexplicable mixture of Chinese, Thai, Burmese and Vietnamese ceramics, as well as other pottery never documented previously. 

Barbara Crossette, speaking with John Shaw MBE, an expert on Southeast Asian ceramics who lived in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, quoted British-born collector and Honorary Consul to Chiang Ma, John Shaw, who described the area of the new finds as ''beyond the writ of the law' who stated ''It would take the whole Thai Army to protect those hills.'' 

Illegal digging at Som Poi Burial Site, 1984.

Shaw's family website, which highlights artefacts from the region in his collection as well as photographs of local looters, mentions that by September 1984 thousands of ceramic wares believed to have been plundered from this area of Thailand, which then appeared in the antique shops of Bangkok, Sukothai and Chiang Mai.   Shaw recorded Chinese, Lan Na, Sawankalok, Mon and even Vietnamese ceramic objects as the type of material which flowed out of the region.  In an interview with Ray Hern, Shaw mentioned that many pristine examples of superb quality, went directly from the diggers into private hands, only to then be dispersed, largely undocumented, onward. 

This despite Thai antiquities legislation passed in 1961 and a government decree passed in July 1972 making it illegal to buy, sell or export bronze age Ban Chiang pottery.

In February 1985 Shaw states that another batch of freshly looted ceramics surged into the antique market, this time coming from the Mae Tun - Om Goi area further north, showing that as long as there was a demand, there would be regional people to supply the market. 

But why bring a pattern of looting and subsequent fossicking in Thailand that happened 37 years ago?

Earlier this September, Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) reported on a collaborative investigation with the country's Department of Fine Arts, which apprehended three individuals involved in present-day illegal excavation and trade of antiquities. The suspects were identified after having advertised their plunder on Facebook.  In a multi-province operation, authorities eventually seized 11 metal detectors, excavation equipment, and nearly 970 items believed to be ancient artefacts during searches conducted this month at nine seperate sites, including, again, one of which was in Chiang Mai.  


Like almost 4 decades ago, authorities have seen a spate of robbery at archeological sites across Northern Thailand, from Sukhothai to Lampang, and from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, this time also sold digitally. 

And while these recovered examples of ancient jewellery, coins, and tiny ornaments suitable for someone's mantelpiece may seem relatively harmless when compared to some of the higher profile Thai sculptures being returned from various museums, the cumulative process to seek, loot, and put these materials on the market for consumers is significantly more destructive towards our knowledge of the past than what individuals, and collectors, often perceive.

The times, they are (not) a-changin. 

By Lynda Albertson



--------------------

References

Grave, Peter, The ring-ditch burials of Northwestern Thailand and the archaeology of resistance - Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 3: 61-166, 1997.

Hearn, Ray,  Thai Ceramics, Lao Na and Sawankalok: An Interview with John Shaw, 2000/03.

The Shaw Collection. ‘Tak Hilltop Burial Sites Introduction’. Accessed 18 September 2023. http://www.shawcollection.com/item.php?cid=221.



September 15, 2023

Three artworks by Austrian Expressionist Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele seized at Three US Museums

Fritz Grünbaum's prisoner registry card at Dachau Concentration Camp

On Wednesday, the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan executed  search warrants at three US museums, seizing three artworks by Austrian Expressionist Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele.

The Schiele works are: 

Russian War Prisoner, 1916, a watercolour and pencil on paper hand drawing seized at the Art Institute of Chicago; 

Portrait of a Man, 1917, a pencil on paper drawing seized at the Carnegie Museum of Art; 

Girl With Black Hair, 1911), a watercolor and graphite pencil on paper hand drawing seized at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.

According to the warrants and Manhattan prosecutors,  “there is reasonable cause to believe” that the works constitute stolen property taken from Franz Friedrich 'Fritz' Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and popular song writer, actor, killed during World War II.  Grünbaum’s extraordinary 449-piece art collection was stolen by the Nazis only to have much of it sold through Eberhard Kornfeld, a Swiss auctioneer, and art dealer based in Bern, without the collector's heir's consent. 

A World War II tragedy, like so many others. 

After the Anschluss, (the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich forming a "Greater Germany"), Fritz Grünbaum and his wife Elisabeth "Lilly" (nee Herzl) Grünbaum try unsuccessfully to escape to Czechoslovakia. 

Apprehended and arrested Fritz Grünbaum remained imprisoned in various concentration camps until his murder. On 16 July 1938 while Fritz Grünbaum was imprisoned at Dachau, the Nazis forced him to execute a power of attorney in favour of his wife Lilly. 

Shortly thereafter, and acting pursuant to her husband's under duress power of attorney Elisabeth Grünbaum is compelled to permit Austrian art historian and art dealer Franz Kieslinger, who was a member of the Nazi party, to inventory Grünbaum's property, including his art collection of over 400 pieces to be valued at 5,791 Reichsmarks (RM).  In this collection were 81 pieces by Schiele. 

Kieslinger inventory documented Grünbaum's Schiele artworks: 

  • five oil paintings listed by name, 
  • 55 "large hand drawings," 
  • 20 pencil drawings, 
  • and 1 etching, 

Grünbaum's collection also included French watercolours and pieces by French Impressionist Edgar Degas, the German artist Albrecht Dürer, Dutch Golden Age artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, known as Rembrandt, and French sculptor François Auguste René Rodin.  All of the latter were identified by name in the Kieslinger inventory. 

Sometime following Kieslinger's inventorying, the Grünbaum's entire art collection was deposited with Schenker & Co., A.G., a Nazi-controlled shipping company, with the firm the applying for an export license on behalf of collector "Lilly Grünbaum" in November 1938.  Gruesomely, Lilly's address is listed as "formerly Vienna . . . now Buchenwalde," the Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany.

On January 14, 1941 Fritz Grünbaum was murdered at Dachau in southern Germany. His wife then signed a declaration before an Austrian notary in connection with obtaining her husband's death certificate, stating: 

"[T]here is nothing left," in other words, there is no estate. Therefore, "[b]ecause of a lack of goods or property, there [was no] estate proceeding for inheritance" before the Dachau Probate Court.

She in turn, is murdered four months later, on October 5 1942 at Maly Trostenets death camp near Minsk in Belarus. 

By the early 1950s some 25% of the Grünbaum's collection, including the three seized artworks, was in circulation on the art market through Bern, Switzerland dealer Eberhard Kornfeld.

Seized in place, prosecutors say 3 seized artworks belong to the three living heirs of Fritz Grünbaum and will be transported to New York at a later date.

By:  Lynda Albertson

September 14, 2023

Museum theft at the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst theft in Köln (Cologne), Germany

During the night, between September 12th and 13th, yet another museum theft involving Chinese objects of porcelain occurred at the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst theft in Köln (Cologne), Germany.  Around midnight, two burglars, one carrying a grey backpack, accessed the museum and one of the exhibition rooms after prying open a glazed side window facing Universitätsstrasse.  Once inside, the culprits made off with a total of nine objects from the museum's display cases, including porcelain vases, plates and jars dating from the the 16th to 19th century.  The works are believed to be worth more than 1 million euros. 

The city of Cologne has published photos of the nine rare objects taken during the incident.  They are: 

A Qing-Dynastie, Yongzheng-Period (1723-1735) Chinese Fencai rose coral-ground bowl with a Jiaqing seal mark of the period;

A large dish with dragon and phoenix design, 1 of 2, China, Jingdezhen kiln, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period, (1723-1735);

A rare Ming Dynasty (1573-1619) Wucai "Phoenix" Double Gourd form Wall Vase depicting a pair of phoenix in flight amid ruyi-shaped clouds below a band of downward plantain leaves;

A Fencai Imperial Qing Dynasty (1796-1820) vase with Jiaqing mark and period;

A very rare Ming Dynasty (1521-1567) yellow-ground and iron-red decorated 'Dragon' jar, mark and period of Jiajing;

A porcelain, enamel dish with dragons and clouds, China, Imperial Porcelain Factory, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722);

A Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736-1795) lotus pot; (NB The lid was left behind. )

A Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1736-1795) yellow-glazed nine dragon vase;

and an early 16th century (1506-1521), Ming Dynasty porcelain plate with Zhengde mark and period.

One of an ongoing series of thefts of this type, another was reported on the 14th of February at the Keramiekmuseum Princessehof in Leeuwarden.  In that incident, which also occurred in the early morning hours, the burglar, or burglars, entered the museum through its roof and stole 11 rare Chinese ceramics from the first floor. 

Outside the museum, investigators recovered the shards of seven objects, apparent broken as the culprits, fled the scene. Four of these pieces remain missing.

September 12, 2023

Vincent Van Gogh's stolen painting, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, has been recovered.

After extensive work on the part of the Dutch National Police and a private investigator, authorities have announced that Vincent Van Gogh's “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring” was recovered yesterday.  The painting, which is part of the Groninger Museum's collection was stolen on 30 March 2020 while on loan at the Singer Laren museum for its The Mirror of the Soul exhibition. To steal the painting, police indicated that the thief accessed the museum by brazenly smashing his way in through the reinforced glass front door with a sledgehammer. 

Once inside, he had obtained entry through the front door, then moved past the ticket desk and gift shop and smashed open a second locked door, cherry-picking this singular Van Gogh painting and quickly leaving the way he came in, with the artwork tucked under his right arm and carrying the sledgehammer in his left hand.

Long rumoured to be in the hands of the drug underworld, the Van Gogh painting's artnappers had previously tantalised law enforcement authorities by sending a  cheeky "proof of life photo to Arthur Brand, a private art crime investigator based in Amsterdam who's made headlines with a string of high-profile art recoveries.  

The hostage-like photograph, sent to Brand on June 18, 2020 showed Vincent's painting laying flat on a garbage bag, sandwiched between a New York Times newspaper and a Dutch copy of the autobiography "The Master Thief" written by Octave "Okkie" Durham, the thief who stole two other Vincent van Gogh paintings on the evening of 7 December 2002 from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. 

Later, Nils Menara, AKA Nils M., was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Lelystad court in the Netherlands for the theft of this painting as well as the second theft of Dutch Golden Age master Frans Hals' 1626 painting  Two Laughing Boys taken from the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden Museum in Leerdam on 26 August 2020.

During Menara's trial, Prosecutors noted his DNA presence at both crime scenes, and gave convincing testimony which detailed how the criminal underworld has an interest in stolen art as it can be used to demand ransom, or used as a medium of exchange for a penalty or as collateral for drug deals.  Menara was also convicted for possession of a firearm and a large amount of hard drugs and was described by the court as an "incorrigible, calculating criminal".

This week authorities announced that the painting was recovered Monday, after it was dropped off at Arthur Brand's home in Amsterdam, wrapped carefully in bubble wrap and placed in a blue IKEA bag following talks Brand held over the weekend with an informant on the Amstelveld, a square in the middle of the historical centre  in Amsterdam. 


In February 2021 Brand had already indicated that through indirect negotiations, that he had been told that the Van Gogh was in the hands of individuals affiliated with Peter Roy Kok, who was later convicted and is currently serving a 12 year prison sentence in a separate case involving the large-scale import and export of cocaine.  It is believed that the painting was to be used as collateral. 

Richard Bronswijk, head of Art Crime at the police, told Dutch Newspaper De Telegraaf  “The perpetrator is in custody and the job is back. That is a one hundred percent score that we are very happy with. Especially for the Groninger Museum. We have had an excellent collaboration with Arthur Brand.”

During his lifetime Van Gogh only sold one painting.  But when opportunity has knocked, art thieves have often had a preference for his works.  To learn more about the 37 Van Gogh works of art which have been stolen, 3 of them two times each, over the course of 15 separate art thefts, please check out my earlier reporting. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

September 1, 2023

Seizure: The Emperor as Philosopher, probably Marcus Aurelius ha seized by the New York District Attorney's Office


Pursuant to a seizure order signed by New York Judge Ruth Pickholz on August 14, 2023, following investigations conducted by the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan, a bronze draped figure believed to represent Marcus Aurelius, is seized from at Cleveland Museum of Art.  According to New York law, the statue of the Roman emperor, known for his philhellenism and Stoic writings, constitutes evidence of, and tends to demonstrate the commission of the crimes of, Criminal  Possession of Stolen Property in the First Degree, Penal Law § 165.54, and a Conspiracy to commit the same crime under Penal Law § 105.10(1). 

But how and why was this statue seized?

By the mid-1960s, a number of bronze figures, including portrait heads, never before seen in documented collections, began circulating on the ancient art market in the United States and Europe.  By May 1967, law enforcement authorities from the Republic of Türkiye had uncovered their first lead as to these objects eventual origins, after a large, ancient bronze statue was found hidden in a house in the village of Ibecik, located in the mountainous region of the Gölhisar district of the southern province of Burdur, less than 100 kilometers from the southwest Turkish coast.

Their investigation, coupled with studies by Turkish archaeologist Jale İnan on behalf of the museum in Burdur, as well as notes gathered and seized from a local treasure hunter during investigations, have helped establish the find spot for these sculptures which is believed to be the eastern Roman Empire city of Boubon, on the summit and slopes of Dikmen Tepe.

According to the ancient Greek geographer Strabo, the city of Boubon formed a tetrapolis with its neighbouring cities of Cibyra, Oenoanda and Balboura.  Culturally diverse, at its pinnacle its inhabitants are said to have spoken as many as four languages: Greek, Pisidian, Solymian and Lycian. 

Travellers to Bubon as late as the mid-19th century described finding a walled acropolis, a small theatre of local stone, and the remains of tombs, temples, and other large structures in what remained of the ancient city. Few of these survive today.  Decimated by at least one large-scale looting operation, the unprotected ancient city's movable cultural heritage became the victims of poverty and art market greed during the mid-20th century, with much of what had survived throughout history, being carried off for profit.

The Sebasteion at Boubon
In 1967, the archaeological museum of Burdur undertook the first legal excavation at what remained of Boubon. During these emergency excavations, where some of the explored sites were reburied after to afford more protection, archaeologists documented a Sebasteion near the centre of the terrace close to the agora.  This complex is believed to have been devoted to the worship of the imperial cult, honouring members of the Imperial family.  It is thought to have been in use for a period of over two centuries from the 1st to the middle of the 3rd century CE. 

Inside this Sebasteion, archaeologists discovered two inscribed podiums along the north and the east walls of the room, and four free-standing bases along the west wall where statues of emperors and members of the Imperial household would have been displayed.  The majority of the dedications found here date from the half century beginning with the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161-168 CE) and ending with the sole reign of Caracalla (211-217 CE). Unsurprisingly, by the time archaeologists set about documenting the site, all but one single headless statue had been illicitly excavated and removed.  

As part of this documentation, Jale İnan assigned names to seven of the missing bronzes, based on seven of the 14 dedicatory inscriptions documented in situ inside the Sebasteion.  According to this researcher's reconstruction, patrons or visitors entering this room in the middle of the 3rd century CE, would have seen bronze statues of Nerva, Poppaea Sabina,  Lucius Verus, Commodus, Septimius Severus and lastly, Marcus Aurelius on the podium facing the entrance.

An inscription documented in İnan's 1990 excavation notes on stones forming the top course of the north podium reads:

[Μ.Αυρήλιο]ν Άντωνεϊνον

Over the subsequent years, it was determined that as many as nine, possibly ten, life-sized bronze statues originating from Bubon had been sold onward, first by the site's looters and middlemen, then onward to a dealer in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast.  From there, it has been established that some were smuggled out of the country and into Switzerland, passing through the hands of Robert Hecht in defiance of Turkish laws which vested ownership of antiquities with the state.  

The Emperor as Philosopher
Image Credit:
Cleveland Museum of Art
By the late half of 1987, four of these six feet and taller spectacular bronzes, all male, three nude and one wearing a philosopher’s tunic, were known to be in the possession of a Boston coin dealer named Charles S. Lipson.  Lipson maintained relationships with several problematic art market actors including Hecht but also George Zakos and others.  The bronzes from Turkey were circulated in temporary exhibitions in several North American museums before passing into museum and private collections. 

After a whirlwind of touring from 1967 to 1981 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Rutgers University, one of Lipson's bronzes, the draped figure, was purchased by the Cleveland museum in 1986.  It was quickly dubbed "The Emperor as Philosopher, probably Marcus Aurelius".   

At the time of sculpture's purchase, museum press releases and follow-up publications openly admitted that the bronze was part of a “group of Roman bronze figures and heads, believed to have come from Turkey” that represented various emperors and empresses, which had been created for a structure honouring the imperial cult in the mid-2nd century. All details which match the statues which likely once filled the Sebasteion.

In February and March of this year the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan seized and subsequently restituted another extremely important Boubon bronze statue from the same Sebasteion, this one representing the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.  In that instance, DANY's Antiquities Trafficking Unit, with the assistance of officials from the Republic of Türkiye, were able to locate and interview one of the individuals who actually looted and smuggled this statue and determined that the bronze had been smuggled into Switzerland by Robert Hecht.  Later this statue was circulated onward via Charles Lipson, first via an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and later loaned long term to the Metropolitan Museum of Art via a private collector.  

After proper packing, The Emperor as Philosopher, one of the finest Antonine imperial portraits in existence, will be transferred this month from the Cleveland Museum of Art to New York City.  There it will be held as evidence in an “ongoing criminal investigation into a smuggling network involving antiquities looted from Turkey and trafficked through Manhattan.”

To read more about this important and long plundered site, and its confirmatory details with respect to this antiquity, please see the publication Boubon. The Inscriptions and Archaeological Remains. A survey 2004 - 2006 by Christina Kokkinia

August 29, 2023

Insider threats in museums, not as rare as you think.

  

Many articles discussing the recently announced thefts at the British Museum in London have emphasised the rarity of insider threats at museums.  Those in the know though, know that it happens more frequently that museums would like the public to recall.  Must instances don't get wide press circulation, as it is not in the collections' best interests to go into incidences publicly, so for the sake of not taking the lid off of too many discreet pots, we will stick to some of those already in the public realm. 

Here are nine of the more spectacular and publicly announced insider threat thefts which have occurred in museums and libraries involving internal staff in positions of trust.

In the early 90s, and over a period of 20 years, John Feller used his position as a respected porcelain scholar and researcher with access to the collections at Winterthur, Harvard Peabody, & other museum institutions to pilfer from their respective collections.  He plead guilty for stealing more than 100 valuable ceramic and glass objects worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from at least eight known museums.  Some of whose records were so poor, that after his arrest and guilty plea, had the insider thief assist law enforcement and the museums with identifying which stolen objects came from their own institutions.

Also in the 1990s, Erik Anders Burius, a senior librarian, stole at least 56 rare 17th-century books worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, while employed at the National Library of Sweden. Dubbed the "Royal Library Man", Burius sold at least 13 of the books to Ketterer Kunst, a German auction house.  He committed suicide shortly after his arrest.

Keith Davies, a former soldier in the New Zealand army for 30 years, worked at the New Zealand’s National Army Museum situated in Waiouru, in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island from 1995 to 2002, after completing his military duty. 

As the museum's registrar, Davies was tasked, amongst other duties, with the storage and inventorying the museum’s medal collection, and corresponding with the families of donors.  Davies seniority and knowledge of the Museum’s systems enabled him to cover his thefts while employed at the museum, and for another eight years after his departure. He altered records and replaced medals with other similar medals, so as to maintain the illusion that sets of medals had not been broken up.  In total this museum insider is believed to have stolen some 750 medals, selling  at least 131 to buyers around the world.  270 objects were still in his possession when he was arrested in Australia in 2011. 

Over the course of several decades, between 1997 through 2012, now deceased museum director Kent Ian Bertil Wiséhn, who worked for the Royal Coin Cabinet (The National Museum of Coin, Medal and Monetary History) in Sweden is believed to have stolen some 1,200 coins from his own museum and the Gothenburg City Museum's coin vault.   He was undone when his sticky fingering was caught on CCTV footage stealing rare stamps from the auction company Philea on Södermalm in Stockholm.

In 19 May 1998 Rome's prestigious Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna was robbed just after the 10 pm closing time. Armed with guns, three thieves entered the museum in gloves and balaclavas to hide their identities.  Storming the control room, the gang gagged two of the three female guards and reportedly forced the third to disable the museum's security system, who was also ordered to hand over its accompanying CCTV footage.  All three museum employees were then locked in a bathroom. Once in the painting's gallery, the thieves bypassed paintings by Edgar Degas and Gustav Klimt and stole three specific paintings:

L'Arlésienne, 1889 (one of five versions)
by Vincent Van Gogh (unsigned)
oil on canvas, 60x50 cm
Completed in Saint-Rémy

Le Jardinier, October 1889
by Vincent Van Gogh (unsigned)
oil on canvas, 61 x 50 cm
Completed in Saint-Rémy

and

Cabanon de Jourdan, 1906
by Paul Cézanne
oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm
The last artwork completed by the artist before his death in Aix-en-Provence

From start to finish the art theft lasted only 15 minutes.  A complex heist, Stefania Viglongo, then head of the museums security control room, was ultimately implicated for being part of the team responsible for the thefts.  She received a sentence of 8 years imprisonment. Her husband, Alfonso Di Febio was sentenced to two years and 8 months. 

In 2003 while Alexander Polman was a curator at the Legermuseum Militaire, the Dutch Army Museum in Delft in the Netherlands, it was discovered that some books had been heavily vandalised and that other collection material were missing, including approximately 2000 prints and several paintings. Polman apparently stole most of this material by arriving earlier than the rest of his staff and secreting the materials in his car. 

On 24 May 2012 Marino Massimo de Caro was arrested for his astonishing role in the theft and embezzlement of thousands of rare volumes looted from one of Italy's oldest libraries, the Biblioteca dei Girolamini. While many of the books he pilfered have been recovered, a number of invaluable 15th and 16th Century books are still missing.

In March 2017 Denis Wilhelm was hired as a Bode Museum security guard in Berlin.  By February 2020 he had been convicted and sentenced of 40 months and  fined €100,000 for his associated role with cousins Ahmed and Wissam Remmo,  members of the Arabische Großfamilien who entered the museum island museum after closing hours.  On 27 March 2017 these two members of the Remmo clan accessed the museum's galleries through a window, and in 16 minutes broke through extremely heavy security glass case, and with the help of a strategically placed roller and wheelbarrow, carried away a giant solid gold coin, weighing 100 kilos from gallery room 243.  In finding Wilhelm an accomplice in the theft, prosecutors made a case that the newly hired security guard had fed the thieves inside information about the design of the alarm system and the timing of the guard's rounds, as well as having intentionally left the museum's window open.  Total theft loss = €3.75m (£3.3m) 

And let's not forget the still ongoing saga with Professor Dirk Obbink, who, since 2 March 2020 has been under investigation by the Thames Valley police for a complex series of thefts and sales of ancient Egyptian material belonging to The Egyptian Exploration Society.