Self-Portrait – Rembrandt van Rijn

As the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum prepares to mark the 34th anniversary of of one of the most infamous art heists in history, the enduring mystery surrounding the disappearance of thirteen invaluable artworks continues to captivate the public imagination.  Despite the passage of time, the mystery surrounding the stolen masterpieces, which include works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Édouard Manet, Johannes Vermeer, Edgar Degas, and Govert Flinck continues to endure, leaving investigators, art enthusiasts, and the museum itself still searching for answers, as well as the artworks. 

Chez Tortoni – Édouard Manet

In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers gained entry to the renowned museum located in Boston's Fenway-Kenmore neighbourhood. Over the course of 81 minutes, they brazenly stole a select group of paintings and and other valuable artifacts, including works by renowned artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Degas. The stolen pieces are estimated to be worth over $500 million in total.

The Concert – Johannes Vermeer

The heist not only resulted in significant financial losses but also left an irreplaceable void in the museum's collection and the art world at large. Despite exhaustive investigations and numerous leads over the past three decades, the whereabouts of the stolen artworks still remain unknown.

Storm on the Sea of Galilee – Rembrandt van Rijn

In an effort to keep the memory of the stolen artworks alive and to encourage any new leads, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has been actively engaging with the public. The museum continues to offer a substantial reward of $10 million dollars for information leading directly to the safe return of the stolen works.  In addition to a proportionary share of the reward given in exchange for information leading to the restitution of any portion of the works. There is also a separate reward of $100,000 being offered for the return of the Napoleonic eagle finial. 

A Lady and Gentleman in Black – Rembrandt van Rijn

Despite remaining unsolved, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains committed to its mission of fostering appreciation for art and maintaining the legacy of its founder, Isabella Stewart Gardner. The museum continues to showcase its extensive collection, which includes works spanning various periods and styles, (as well as the empty frames, and serving as a hub for cultural and educational programs.

Three Mounted Jockeys – Edgar Degas

As the investigation into the 1990 art heist enters its 34th year, authorities and art enthusiasts alike remain hopeful that renewed attention to the case may finally bring closure to one of the most perplexing mysteries in the art world's history.  The FBI believes it has determined where the stolen art was transported in the years after the theft as well as the identity of the thieves.  In a March 18, 2013 press release the Bureau stated “The FBI believes with a high degree of confidence that in the years after the theft, the art was transported to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region, and some of the art was taken to Philadelphia, where it was offered for sale by those responsible for the theft.”

Cortege aux Environs de Florence – Edgar Degas

For now, the artworks remain elusive. However the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and its supporters will continue to hold onto hope, awaiting the day when the stolen treasures are finally returned to their rightful home. So be on the lookout for these, and if you see them, please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or the museum directly or through a third party.  Tips may also be submitted online here.

Landscape with Obelisk – Govert Flinck

La Sortie de Pesage – Edgar Degas

An ancient Chinese Gru

A French Imperial Eagle Finial

Program for an Artistic Soirée 1 – Edgar Degas

Program for an Artistic Soirée 2 – Edgar Degas

Forty-nine jewellery pieces, created by twentieth century sculptor, painter, and Italian partisan, Umberto Mastroianni have disappeared during a burglary between Tuesday and Wednesday night at the house-museum, Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera, which was once home to Italian poet and novelist Gabriele D'Annunzio.  One object was dropped when the thief or thieves departed. All of the pieces had been on temporary loan, as part of an exhibition titled: Come un oro caldo e fluido. Gli ori di Umberto Mastroianni, curated by Alberto Dambruoso, which featured bracelets, pendants, rings, brooches, plates and sculptures created by the artist between the 1950s and 1990s using the 'lost wax' method.  

Up until the 1940s the artist was a classical sculptor in the traditional sense, only later creating the contemporary styles stolen in this heist. With losses currently estimated to be at one million euros, a press conference is scheduled for tomorrow to provide further details regarding the burglary. 

The Amelia Conference: 

Held in the beautiful town of Amelia, Italy, the seat of ARCA’s summer-long Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection, the Association’s 13th annual Amelia Conference will be held the weekend of June 21-23, 2024 with a networking cocktail opening the event for all conference participants.

At the heart of the conference will be two days of panel sessions, on Saturday and Sunday, June 22 and 23, 2024, devoted to presentations selected through this call.  For more information about registering for this year's event, please see our link on the ARCA website here.

Geared towards international organizations, national enforcement agencies, academics, cultural institutions, and private sector professionals in the art and antiquities fields, the Amelia Conference follows a long-established commitment by the Association to examine contemporary issues of common concern in an open, non-combative, multi-disciplinary format in order to promote greater awareness and understanding of the need for better protection of the world’s cultural patrimony.

2024 Call for Presenters: Session Formats and Topics

Given the success of the Amelia Conference over the past decade, it is important to recognise the growing interdisciplinary and international nature of this emerging field, the growing complexity of art and heritage crime, and the disciplines and subject matter experts who follow along and contribute within their areas of speciality.  With that in mind, this year’s conference will build upon topic-specific sessions designed to stimulate discussion and share learning on a series of topics of common concern. Some conference panels may feature more active panel debate about a session topic, or present various and/or contrasting perspectives about a topic. Each panel session will last approximately 75 or 90 minutes and will include a number of oral presentations with some time dedicated for interactive discussion afterward.

ARCA welcomes presentation proposals related to the conference’s art and antiquities crime theme from individuals in relevant fields, including law, policing, security, art history, art authentication, archaeology, or the allied art market.  

Presenters with topics related to the following areas are particularly encouraged to submit a speaking proposal this year highlighting the following issues of common concern:

Strengthening international cooperation in the fight against illicit trafficking.  How have things changed in the last decade in terms of international cooperation?  

Organised crime's footprint on and in art market trade and transactions. 

Recent successes in the field and what we can learn from them collectively.

Peeling back the obstacles: Why is it so hard for museums to proactively address problematic art in their collections and enact restitutions once those problems have been identified. 

Consciousness raising regarding vandalism as a form of climate or world issues protest in museums. 

Digital and technology-facilitated approaches to combatting illicit trafficking.

Recent convictions: Art crime’s bad boys (and girls) and what we can learn from their prosecutions. 

Recent hot topic and dramas in the field of forgery. 

Resolving art disputes in and outside of the courtroom.

Each selected presenter will represent a coherent and clearly focused presentation of 15 to 20 minutes maximum on a topic of common concern, that combined with presentations given by co-panelists, are designed to provide significant insights into the topic or theme and to stimulate thoughtful, not combative or antagonistic, discourse.

We very much look forward to receiving presentation proposals on the aforementioned or alternative art and antiquities crime topics, noting that panels may change or be altered based on speaker availability.

Abstract and CV Submission Deadline: April 15, 2024

Abstract Word Limit: 400 words, excluding abstract title, presenter/co-presenter names and affiliations

Abstract Selection Process

Each submitted abstract must be accompanied by a CV. The abstract review process will be conducted blind, i.e. all author names will be removed before the abstract before being sent out for peer review. The abstract itself will be reviewed and scored by independent reviewers who have expertise in the specific session’s identified subject area.

Peer Reviewers apply the following criteria to judge abstract submissions 

I. Quality and Originality (1 to 5)

Abstracts containing significant new findings or presenting concretised information or new approaches will be given higher scores than those that merely serve as a chronology of, or modifications to, older findings or routine topics of dischord.

II. Importance (1 to 5 pts)

This criterion addresses the importance of the presentation or research in terms of covering new ground and in advancing knowledge in the art crime and cultural heritage protection field.

III. Presentation (1 to 5 pts)                                                                              This criterion addresses how well the specific research question(s) and objectives, methods used, primary results, facts ascertained, etc., are explained, rather than simply titling the topical subject itself. A clearly written abstract follows a logical order (e.g. aims, methods, outcome of investigation or analysis).

FINAL NOTE 

All accepted participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses, however, accepted conference presenters will have their conference fees waived and will be invited to be ARCA’s guest for the Amelia Conference icebreaker cocktail on 21 June 2024.

In the summer of 2015 thieves entered a five-story building on the Plaza de la Encarnación —an affluent area in the center of Madrid near the Spanish Senate and the Royal Palace.  Once inside, the burglars broke into the residence of banker José Capelo Blanco. 

Entering his apartment without being seen by the doorman or other residents, the raiders quickly disabled the businessman's alarm system and set about stealing five visceral portraits, made by the Irish-born British figurative painter Francis Bacon. The paintings would later be estimated to be worth €30 million. In addition to the high value fine art, the thieves also accessed the homeowner's safe and stole jewellery and a collection of ancient coins valued at €400,000.  Newspapers would later report that the crime was exceedingly professional and left behind few clues.  

By the early autumn, an accomplice, with prior convictions for drug trafficking, began making the first of multiple efforts to try to sell the hot Bacons through market contacts in Spain. One of these involved trying to persuade a distant member of his extended family, who worked in the art world, that he could make a lot of money, if he could help find a buyer. 

Up until this point, images of the paintings had not been shared publicly, as the artworks were gifted by the artist directly to Capelo Blanco and had therefore never appeared in circulation prior.  The fact that images of the Bacons did not appear publically, perhaps emboldened the thieves to make their first mistake. 

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

This exchange proved critical to the investigation and the ALR worked with the Spanish National Police turning over the communique which allowed investigators to draw a red circle around their first group of potential suspects. 

In early March 2016 the four individuals were taken into custody:

• Ricardo Barbastro Heras, the alleged organiser of the fencing network

• Antonio Losada de la Rosa 

• José Losada Manzano

• Rafael Heredia González

All were charged with crimes of concealment of robbery with force.

By May 28, 2016 Spanish news sites reported that agents working with the Central Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) had arrested another six individuals in Madrid who were also believed to be connected to the 2015 theft in some way. This included:

• Alfredo Cristian Ferriz González, AKA Cristian Ferriz, who has a long police record, eight of them for robbery with force, three for vehicle theft, one for threats and another for drug traffic. 

• Art dealer Cristóbal García

• Agustín González Serrano

• Jorge de las Heras Escámez

• Juan Manuel Marce Gea

• Aquilino Jiménez Bermúdez

 With ten suspects named, two more, unnamed, were added to the list, bringing the total number of suspects to twelve. 

In July 2017 investigators announced the recovery of three of the five Bacon artworks.  By January 2021 Dutch private investigator Arthur Brand tweeted a series of "proof-of-life" images which showed the two portraits which remained missing.  One of these photos depicted one of the Bacon creations lying beside a copy of Spanish newspaper El País dated October 6, 2019.  Another showed the left bottom corner of the one of the painting's verso, which showed the Irish painter's handwriting and signature. 

These are the pictures of the two missing Bacons. Surroundings of the original thieves try to sell them for 4 million Euros. They are in touch with interested buyers. This might stop them. pic.twitter.com/EigMEgsIOc

— Arthur Brand (art detective) (@brand_arthur) January 7, 2021

In various articles Brand indicated that he had received word that underworld buyers were considering the two outstanding stolen paintings, telling journalists that he had been passed the video by an unnamed informant, which seemed to indicate that the two remaining artworks were being shopped by an individual using the name which appeared to be shopped by an individual using the nom de plum, "Jason".  

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

In touch with the Spanish authorities, Brand had announced the contact on his social media channel hoping the unwelcome publicity would serve to dissuade potential purchasers who might be considering the stolen Bacons. Meanwhile Spanish authorities continued to tighten the screws, arresting two more not publicly named individuals, which brought the total number of persons of interest (publicly announced) to twelve. 

Last month, on 29 February 2024 the Historical Heritage Brigade of Spain's National Police arrested two more people in the southern area of ​​Madrid.  The pair are believed to be the persons with physical control of the two outstanding artworks.

Aged 53 and 25, one of the arrestees is named as Rubén Sánchez Hernández.

Considered to be the mastermind behind this robbery, he is also believed to have been involved in the Pink Panther-styled robbery of Ángeles Farga jewelry store, on Ortega y Gasset Street in the capital.  According to Spanish news sites, Sánchez Hernández has connections to Roberto Anaut's gang, the 'Dragonems' and disciple of Ángel Suárez Flores, who was in charge of another outstanding paintings theft involving 17 paintings stolen from the residence of businesswoman and philanthropist Esther María Koplowitz y Romero de Juseu, the 7th Marchioness of Casa Peñalver in August 2001.

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

For now, the last two paintings remain listed on Interpol's stolen Works of Art database. 

In 2009, when ARCA started the first of its kind, interdisciplinary, approach to the scholarly study of art crime, no one was being trained to look closely at the  underbelly of the art world.   Noticing that gap, represented a unique opportunity for the association, to provide  individuals interested in intensive training in a structured and academically diverse format, a summer-long postgraduate program developed  around the study of the dynamics, strategies, objectives and modus operandi of criminals and criminal organisations who commit a variety of art crimes.    

Turn on the news (or followARCA's art crime blog) and you will see over and over again examples of suspect acquisitions, museum thefts, forgeries, antiquities looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods.  Intentional heritage destruction during armed conflict, once a modern-day rarity, now affects multiple countries and adds to regional instability in many areas of the globe.  

Looted art, both ancient and Holocaust-related, continues to find its way into the prestigious galleries of respected institutions, while auction houses and dealers continue to be less than adept at distinguishing smuggled and stolen art, from art with a clean provenance. Thus making dealing with art crime an unrelenting problem and one without any easy solution.

Taken incident by incident, it is difficult to see the impact and implications of art crime as a global concern, but when studied across disciplines, looking at the gaps of legal instruments, country to country, one begins to have a clearer picture of the significance of the problem and its impact on the world's collective patrimony.

The world's cultural heritage is an invaluable legacy and its protection is integral to our future. 

Since 2009, other short and long programs have come and gone, and yet, ARCA remains, the longest running, and most comprehensive programming of its kind. 

Here are 11 reasons why you should consider joining us this summer in Amelia, Italy for ARCA's 13th edition of our professional development program. 

At its foundation, ARCA's summer-long program in Italy draws upon the overlapping and complementary expertise of international thought-leaders on the topic of art crime – all practitioners and leading scholars who actively work in the sector. 

In 2023, participants of the program will receive 220+ hours of instruction from a range of experts actively committed to combatting art crime from a variety of different angles.

One summer, eleven courses.

For more information please see ARCA's website here.

To request further information or to receive a 2024 prospectus and application materials, please email:

education (at) artcrimeresearch.org

Full Moon Night, 1878 by Ivan Aivazovsky

There are 32 stolen paintings listed in the INTERPOL Works of Art database by the Romantic painter Ivan Aivaszovsky (1817-1900), when searching under the spelling "Ivan Constatinowitsch Aivazoffski" but not, apparently this one.  This one is scheduled to be auctioned in Moscow on February 18th. 

Aivazovsky, born Hovhannes Aivazian in 1817, was a prolific marinist artist of Armenian descent who left an indelible mark on the art world with his mesmerising seascapes. Born in 1817 in the Crimean city of Feodosia, Aivazovsky studied painting at the Fine Art Academy in Saint Petersburg, but it was his deep connection to the Black Sea coast which profoundly influenced his work, and earned him the title "the painter of the sea." 

Considered a master of light and shadow, Aivazovsky's oeuvre comprises over 6,000 paintings, ranging from serene moonlit scenes, tempestuous maritime battles, and shipwrecks often capturing the irresistible and ever-changing moods of the sea, as well as the men who navigated upon it, with unparalleled realism and drama. 

His works have been sold for a wide range of prices, with some of his most renowned and iconic works fetching millions. His eponymous painting, The Ninth Wave, 1850 depicts an unlucky group of castaways trying to survive a shipwreck.  The artwork was a hat tip to the nautical phenomenon in which waves are said to grow larger and larger, in a continuing series, up until the largest wave, the ninth, at which point the sequence starts again.  This painting has been part of the collection of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg since 1897, having originally been acquired for the Imperial Hermitage of Emperor Alexander III.  

According to ArtPrice, as one of the most sought-after 19th century painters, Aivazovsky's works have gone up for sale at public auction at least 1,296 times some at modest prices and others tipping the top of the chart.  In 2006, two London auctions of his paintings, View of Constantinople (1852) and The Varangians on the Dnieper (1876) hammered in at € 2,142,810 at Christie's and € 2,262,535  at Sotheby's. In 2020, the artist's painting The Bay of Naples, 1878 was sold at Sotheby’s for $2.9 million.

But let's talk about the origins of one of Aivazovsky's seascapes coming up for sale in Russia just four days. 

Painted by Aivazovsky in 1878, Full Moon Night, 1878, the 63.4 X 84.2 cm aoil on canvas painting is set to be auctioned at the Moscow Auction House, with a starting bid listed at ₽100 million (€1,022,677).

Yesterday,  Günduze Aydynovych, an Azerbaijani-born Ukrainian lawyer and human rights activist who has served as Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea reported on the Social Media website "X" that this artwork was one of some fifty canvases illegally transferred to the Simferopol Art Museum at the beginning of the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, and its theft was registered with INTERPOL in 2017.

Росія планує виставити на аукціон картину Айвазовського «Місячна ніч». Ця картина була серед 52 полотен, що були незаконно передані у Сімферопольський художній музей у Криму. У 2017 році @INTERPOL_HQ, за поданням @Crimea_Prok, оголосив картини у міжнародний розшук. Таким чином РФ… pic.twitter.com/i7KWrlVImS

— Гюндуз Мамедов/Gyunduz Mamedov (@MamedovGyunduz) February 13, 2024

But how did this painting get to Russia? 

According to Ukrainian authorities, on 18 February 2014, the Simferopol Art Museum and the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore signed an exhibition agreement to jointly exhibit paintings as part of the exhibition Russian and Ukrainian Art of the 18th - Early 20th Centuries.  The offering was designed to give audiences a rare opportunity to explore the diverse artistic expressions of Russian and Ukrainian artists side by side from these periods. 

On the same day, 52 paintings belonging to the Museum Fund of Ukraine, including Aivazovsky's Full Moon Night, 1878 arrived in Mariupol from Crimea. 

Expected to last until 31 May 2014, the exhibition was forced to close earlier when the management of the Simferopol Art Museum recalled the paintings to the territory of the then-occupied Crimea due to the increasingly tense socio-political situation in Ukraine.  On 19 March 2014, the Mariupol museum workers received a letter from the director of the Simferopol Art Museum.  Thereafter, Olga Chaplinska, the then-head of the Mariupol Museum of Local History terminated the exhibition agreement and on 20 March 2014 Nataliya Kuryonysheva, also from the Mariupol Museum oversaw the handover of 52 paintings to an envoy for transfer to the Simferopol Museum.  According to later reports in Russian media, the museum's staff had “saved” these paintings from damage by Ukrainian fighters.

In March 2018 both women were criminally charged for their actions pursuant to Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which consists in official negligence, i.e. failure to perform or improper performance of official duties by an official, which caused significant damage to Ukraine's state interests.

By December 2016 and up through March 2017, Full Moon Night, 1878 by Aivazovsky was in St Petersburg, circulating along with 53 other works of art by the artist during a special exhibition.  This 200 year anniversary event occupied the entire first floor of the Benois building of the State Russian Museum. 

By 19 August 2017 Tetyana Tikhonchyk, the press secretary of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea temporarily stationed in Kyiv had published a copy of a letter to her Facebook page.

This document, protocolled as: 
Identification code 40108756
19 08.2017 № 4584/100/01-2017

From the National Police of Ukraine - Main Department of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol received by the Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the Senior Advisor of Justice Mamedov G.A reads as follows:

Dear Günduze Aydynovych,

We inform you that according to the response of the Department of Interpol and Europol of the National Police of Ukraine, the works of art mentioned in the letter dated August 15, 2017 No. 4369/100/01-2017 were entered into the records of the General Secretariat of Interpol as "stolen".

Best regards

Head, Police General of the third rank

A.K. Bakhchivanzhi

Unfortunately, due to insufficient resources and the ongoing war in Ukraine, images and documentation for the 52 works of art, identified in this single 2014 misappropriation, have not yet been uploaded to the Interpol Works of Art database and made accessible to the public and other country law enforcement agencies. 

ARCA hopes that by highlighting Günduze Aydynovych's concerns and Ukraine's supporting documentation on their artworks' removal, will serve as a cautionary reminder that this painting's auction, (and potentially others) is being questioned by  Ukraine as has been removed from the confines of the territory of Ukraine in contravention of the laws of Ukraine. 

For now, ARCA recommends that responsible and ethical collectors refrain from bidding on this artwork unless its full provenance documentation is provided.  

UPDATE: 19:00 GMT+1

Moscow Auction House has told Russian journalists with RBC that the painting  Full Moon Night, 1878 by Aivazovsky was purchased at Stockholm's Auktionsverk in Sweden in 2008.  They also state that it is this second Moonlit Night, a view of the Black Sea off the Crimean coast in the Feodosia region dating to 1882 which is the subject of the Interpol notice as having been once been part of the Simferopol Art Museum collection. 

 

ARCA has confirmed there was a 2008 sale in Stockholm which matches the depiction of the disputed Aivazovsky painting, now up for auction in Moscow. This painting, under the title of A corner of Constantinople from the sea by moonlight, was painted in 1878 and uses a different phonetical spelling for the artist, referring to him as Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky.  According to the ArtPrice database, this painting sold for a hammer price of € 338,910. 

What remains a question is why, and for what the motive if any, did the auction house and the authenticators at the Russian Museum for Scientific Work, who attested to the artworks authenticity, change the name of the artwork.

By Lynda Albertson

Seized by Swiss authorities in the Canton of Basel 10 years ago, this 18th or19th century (Khmer empire) Buddha, seated in vajraparyankasana, with the proper right hand touching the earth in bhumisparsha mudra, at the moment of his enlightenment, is finally on his way home.  

Originally Swiss experts believe the sculpture dated back to the pre-Angkor or early Angkor Periods and is was assumed to be over 1,000 years old. However, according to a first-step assessment by experts from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MCFA), based on form and style, the sculpture is believed to be of the later period. 

Representing Cambodia ata ceremony held on 6 February 2024, His Excellency Mr. H.E. Dara, Cambodia's Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva received the enlightened Buddha in a handover between both countries coordinated by Fabienne Baraga, Head of the Specialist Department for International Cultural Heritage Transfer, at the Federal Office of Culture and Anna Mattei Russo, Head of Southeast Asia and Pacific Regional Coordinators of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. 

Ambassador In Dara expressed gratitude to the Swiss government and emphasised Cambodia's ongoing efforts to repatriate other significant cultural properties. He called upon museums, institutions, and curators holding Khmer antiquities to voluntarily return them to Cambodia, framing such actions as gestures of generosity and respect for cultural values.

As a source country, Cambodia's cultural heritage has suffered significant losses due to looting, particularlyas an outcome of periods of civil conflict, political instability, and poverty. The widespread looting of archaeological sites and temples, such as those at Angkor Wat, Preah Vihear, and Banteay Chhmar has resulted in the illicit trafficking of countless artefacts out of the country. 

These artifacts, ranging from ancient sculptures to intricate carvings, represent key aspects of Cambodia's history, religion, and artistic achievement. The illegal trade in Cambodia's cultural heritage not only deprives its people of its rightful treasures but also erases vital connections to its past for future generations. 

Efforts to combat looting and repatriate stolen artefacts from the country are ongoing, but the scale of the problem underscores the urgent need for international cooperation and collective action to safeguard Cambodia's cultural legacy.

As stated on the official Facebook page of the State Customs Service of Ukraine,  customs officers in Chernivtsi foiled an attempt to smuggle archaeological artefacts out of the country last week. 

However, during the routine customs inspection, officers collaborated with the State Border Guard Service personnel in the Chernivtsi region and uncovered various archaeological items, including fragments of horse armor, pieces of jewelry, crosses, household items, and Byzantine glass elements. These items fall under the purview of Ukraine's law on "the export, import, and return of cultural values" dated September 21, 1999, making their removal from the customs territory illegal.

   

In November 2023, another stop customs officers in Chernivtsi, again with a driver choosing the "green corridor" lane to pass the customs control, resulted in the seizure of 100 books and one religious icon that likewise were not declared and not presented to customs control, in contravention of the law on export, import and return of cultural values.

That same month, Kyiv customs officers also seized heritage items, exiting the country via mail shipments.  These included an icon of "The Lord Almighty" (XIX-XX centuries) from the famous Borisov icon-painting school, a Bronze Cross-Encolpion (XII-XIII centuries) with relief images of Christ, Virgin and scenes of Crucifixion, used to hold the relics of saints in the times of Kyivan Rus and another grouping of small historic finds. They were heading from Kyiv Oblast and Ternopil Oblast to the United States.