Displaying items by tag: smuggled

An $8 million Basquiat painting and a Roman Togatus statue that were illegally smuggled into the United States by a convicted São Paulo banker were returned to the government of Brazil today at a ceremony in New York. The artworks’ former owner, Edemar Cid Ferreira, was convicted in Brazil in 2005 of fraud and laundering one billion dollars as the founder and president of Banco Santos. Before being caught, he had been converting some of these ill-gotten profits into a 12,000-piece art collection worth an estimated $20 to 30 million, according to Brazilian officials.

The United States returned Wednesday dozens of ancient artifacts that had been smuggled out of Egypt by an international criminal network, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.

The items -- including a Greco-Roman style Egyptian sarcophagus discovered in a Brooklyn garage in 2009 -- were handed back to the Egyptian government at a ceremony in Washington.

"To think that some of these treasured artifacts were recovered from garages, exposed to the elements, is unimaginable," said ICE director Sarah Saldana in a statement.

An international investigation into antiquities looted from India and smuggled into the United States has taken authorities to the Honolulu Museum of Art.

The museum on Wednesday handed over seven rare artifacts that it acquired without museum officials realizing they were ill-gotten items. Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will take the items back to New York and, from there, eventually return them to the government of India.

U.S. customs agents say the items were taken from religious temples and ancient Buddhist sites, and then allegedly smuggled to the United States by an art dealer. The dealer, Subhash Kapoor, was arrested in 2011 and is awaiting trial in India. Officials say Kapoor created false provenances for the illicit antiquities.

Some 250 ancient Egyptian artifacts that were found in the luggage of passengers arriving in Paris four years ago were returned Thursday.

French customs handed the trove over to the Egyptian embassy, Associated Press reports.

The items, including rings, amulets, clay pots, funeral statues and other objects, come from different periods during the Egyptian empire, with some dating back as far as 2,000 B.C.

The U.S. has returned nine stolen 18th-century paintings by Mexican artist Miguel Cabrera to the government of Peru.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the works were stolen from a church in Lima in 2008. He says they were smuggled out of Peru to be trafficked on the international art market.

Spain is to return to Colombia 691 indigenous artefacts seized in a police operation 11 years ago.

Most of the ceramic items are of huge cultural and archaeological value, and date back to 1400BC.

They had been smuggled out of South America by a man linked to the drug gangs before being recovered in Spain, the embassy in Madrid said.

Following a court order in Spain, the items were handed over to the Colombian authorities.

They were put in the Museum of America in Madrid and will be returned to Colombia in the next few months.

For years, Italy, Greece, and other ancient lands have accused American museums of ignoring evidence that antiquities in their collections were looted from archaeological sites. Five years ago, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) responded by making the requirements for acquiring ancient works much more stringent. The revised guidelines advised American museums against acquiring works unless solid proof existed that the artifact, prior to 1970, was outside the country where it was discovered in modern times, or was legally exported from that country after 1970.

 1970 remains an important date, as it marks the year UNESCO put a stop to the illicit trafficking of antiquities. The year is now regarded as the standard cutoff for collecting. Works that appear on the market without documentation dating back that far are much more likely to have been stolen, looted, or smuggled out of their countries.

 On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 the AAMD announced a few additional restrictions for American museums. The AAMD, which has 217 member museums in North America, now requires institutions to post a public explanation on the AAMD’s website if they acquire any ancient works with spotty ownership records. In addition, the museum much provide an image of the object, any known provenance information, and an explanation as to why they decided to acquire the work. If an institution fails to comply, they will be subject to ethical scrutiny and possible expulsion from the AAMD.

 Officials hope that the tighter acquisition regulations will discourage American museums from obtaining questionable artifacts while supporting transparency between the United States and nations of origin who may lay claim to the antiquities.

The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio returned a ceramic water vase, which depicts the Greek god, Dionysus turning pirates into dolphins, to the Italian government on Tuesday, January 9, 2013. The jug, which dates back to the sixth century BC, was likely looted from Italian soil years ago.

The Toledo Museum of Art purchased the jug in 1982 from art dealers who used falsified documents to hide the object’s dishonest past. Investigators revealed that the jug was smuggled out of Italy after it was illegally excavate sometime before 1981.

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency announced that the Estruscan black-figure kalpis, which is valued at $665,000, was handed back to Italian officials following a ceremony held at the museum. While Italy currently holds reign over the work, the jug will remain on view in the museum’s Libbey Court until it leaves for Rome in late summer of this year.