Looted Antiquities

Politicians and trade bodies have raised further concerns over how a new Cultural Property Bill could impact the art market.

The UK Government’s cultural property bill currently going through parliament needs “vital changes” to be workable and to safeguard “legitimate art market interests”, says the Antiquities Dealers’ Association (ADA).

The EU’s planned crackdown on terrorism funding and the way it is investigating possible legislation is a ‘big concern to the trade’.

Roman and Etruscan antiquities believed to have been obtained from illicit excavations were found by police in 45 crates belonging to Robin Symes, a high-profile British art dealer who served seven months in Pentonville prison in 2005.

A late 18th century bust of the Goddess Diana which was looted from the Royal Lazienki Palace in Warsaw by the Nazis has been returned to Poland after emerging at auction in Vienna.

It was included in one of the Ashmolean Museum’s greatest bequests but this magnificent salt cellar was subsequently discovered to be Nazi loot. Recently restituted, it soared to £850,000 at auction.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s have well-established specialist departments for brokering deals on sale of Nazi-looted works returned to rightful heirs. Over the last decade some major pieces of Impressionist and Modern art have come to auction as a result of restitution settlements.

The third annual ‘Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Symposium’ will be held in New York on June 4-6.

Four lots were withdrawn at the eleventh hour by Christie’s last week amid fresh allegations in the media over illicit antiquities at auction.

A UK-based businessman has been arrested on suspicion of looting Egyptian artefacts after he consigned several items into a Christie’s antiquities sale in London.

Malcolm Hay, the dealer controversially convicted by an Athens court of trading in illegally excavated antiquities, has learnt that the hearing of the appeal he lodged in March 2011 has been delayed until February 1, 2013 owing to disruption caused by strikes in Greece.

A SCULPTURE has been returned to its former home more than 70 years after it was looted during the Blitz from a bombed London church.

THE Greek courts have commuted the sentence of antiquities dealer Malcolm Hay from four years to three, suspended for three years.

ANTIQUITIES dealer Malcolm Hay must wait until February 18 for the appeal against his conviction for trafficking in illegally excavated artefacts to be heard in the Greek courts.

Just days after Sotheby’s announced the sale of a 16th century ivory mask and five other works from the Kingdom of Benin, the auctioneers said they have been withdrawn.

UK museums whose own rules prevent them from returning Nazi-looted art to its rightful owners can now do so thanks to a new Act of Parliament.

SPECULATION is rising that many more restituted works of art may end up being offered for sale following a ruling made by Vienna’s city council.

The Metropolitan Police’s new team of ArtBeat Special Constables were deployed for the first time on October 20 as part of Operation Syenite. The aim of the operation is to raise awareness among London’s art world about antiquities looted from the Afghanistan National Museum in Kabul during the 1990s.

THE United States has taken a lead in art restitution by setting up a website to track Nazi-looted art. The Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal which has just gone online, will provide a database of museums collections – 70 have signed up so far – for checks on art that disappeared in Europe between 1933 and 1945.

LAST-minute efforts to persuade the Government to amend legislation that could prove damaging to the honest trade in antiques looked set to pay off as the Antiques Trade Gazette went to press.