Denver Post confirms what we’ve been hearing: nearly all federal HSI agents with expertise on cultural property crimes have been reassigned to immigration duties in recent months.
Major loss of law enforcement capabilities in the world’s largest art market.
www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/u...
Trade based money laundering in the antiquities trade
On Monday, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced the voluntary repatriation of 86 ancient artifacts to Greece by a private foreign collector, the result of a collaborative agreement
Anyone know the collector?
greekreporter.com/2025/09/22/g...
Why New York can be a risky place for dealers and museums to hold [stolen] art
Could the Manhattan district attorney's seizures be putting people off sending [stolen] artworks to the city?
www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/04/w...
New Case: Pandava.
This sandstone sculpture of Pandava, depicting a warrior from Hindu mythology, was stolen from the Prasat Chan temple within Cambodia's Koh Ker complex, likely in the 1970s under the Khmer Rouge.
🚨 New addition to our Ten Most Wanted Antiquities: The “Mariupol Bull Figurine,” one of more than 2,000 museum pieces that disappeared amid the chaos of Russia’s 2022 siege of Mariupol and the Kremlin’s broader campaign of cultural plunder.
Learn more: theantiquitiescoalition.org/antiquities-...
This case illustrates how organized crime groups use the US art market for trade-based money laundering — precisely the issue targeted in the new bipartisan legislation championed by several senators and @combatlooting.bsky.social
The Art Market Integrity Act will deny illicit actors the opportunity to launder money through the US art market. Huge shoutout to @combatlooting.bsky.social for their work championing this important bill. See their full press release here:
theantiquitiescoalition.org/congress-tak...
The bipartisan Art Market Integrity Act would require art dealers and auction houses to comply with anti-money-laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
www.fetterman.senate.gov/fetterman-co...
The Lalitpur Call to International Action for the Return of Stolen Heritage is clear: "the prima facie responsibility of proving ‘provenance’ lies with the museums and collectors who happen to hold items from other cultures"
Read more: nepalheritagerecoverycampaign.org/news/lalitpu...
Of course, repatriation takes time. But countries have been doing their hard work—it’s only fair that major museums do theirs too. The ICIJ investigative report, provenance gaps, and known networks are good places to start if the goal is true accountability.
www.icij.org/investigatio...
At the same time, the Met describes itself as taking a more “proactive” approach to repatriation. Yet even a simple search for “Kathmandu” in its collection brings up objects linked to Doris Wiener, an antiquities dealer long associated with trafficking networks.
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
Just returned from the International Conference on the Recovery of Cultural Heritage in Kathmandu. So many stories of pain, loss, and the immense effort it takes to reclaim a stolen god—decades of research, advocacy, and diplomacy.
📷 Laxmi Narayan: nepalheritagerecoverycampaign.org/news/laxmi_n...
Register now for the 3rd annual ANSCH Conference, featuring
speakers from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon and Libya discussing the protection of cultural heritage in conflict and post-conflict areas:
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Operation Pandora continues to see results: 80 arrests and more than 37,700 cultural goods seized.
Other Key Numbers:
🔩 69 Metal detectors seized
🌏 23 countries involved in the operation
⚖️ 258 cases reported, with more arrests and seizures expected
www.interpol.int/fr/Actualite...
⛰️The Antiquities Coalition is honored to be joining the #ICAHM 2025 Annual Meeting in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, represented by Executive Director Tess Davis and Director of Programs @helenaarose.bsky.social, who chair the ICAHM Working Group on Illicit Trafficking.
Wealthy British descendants selling off the precious gems originally buried with the ashes of Buddha in India may not be illegal, but by today’s standards, the ethics of profiteering from colonial era appropriations are highly dubious.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
We again call on the Met to tailor its provenance policies to reflect its commitments, proactively addressing #ContestedAntiquities and setting a gold standard for museum transparency and accountability worldwide.
🎟️The 2025 #LooksVsLoot Red Carpet: theantiquitiescoalition.org/22042-2/
🧵At the 2025 Gala, celebrities and stylists are showcasing garments “Tailored for You”, bringing to mind the monumental impact of small, meticulous changes.
As guests walked the red carpet, the Antiquities Coalition presents our third annual #LooksVsLoot, spotlighting the museum’s ongoing reckoning with #CulturalRacketeering.
This year’s looks celebrate five masterpieces from the Met’s collection—now returned.
An oil lamp leads customs to a 20 million treasure trove of trafficked antiquities
Archaeological objects have been imported massively and illegally for years by the network. Taxes amount to more than 2 million.
www.24heures.ch/trafic-une-l...
9th century stone Vishnu head from Cambodia.
This 9th century stone head of Vishnu, is up for auction on 10 April at Galerie Zacke in Vienna. It has all the hallmarks of a looted artwork. Sold by Douglas Latchford’s go-to resellers in London, Spink & Son in 1985 to a US collector. #Cambodia
Serop Simonian of the alleged Dib-Simonian trafficking network is on the lam after French authorities released him amid a sprawling investigation of his role in trafficking looted Egyptian antiquities to institutions including the Met and Louvre Abu Dhabi.
www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/03/27/s...
So pleased to share this article coauthored for @combatlooting.bsky.social by me and Sudanese Heritage Professional Ali Nour on why now presents a unique opportunity to take action to protect Sudan's culture.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/anothe...
Casual suggestion in 1927 letter from John Marshall (Met's antiquities buyer) to an American collector that she consider arranging for Italian owner of an ancient Greek sculpture to chop off its head to make it easier to export...
More honest advice on buying antiquities would be something along these lines:
Assume everyone is lying to you
Assume all documents are falsified
Assume every object is forged or looted
Now: let the seller convince you otherwise with concrete proof to the contrary.
If they can't, pass.
Proactive provenance research would mean looking at all acquisitions from a red-flag source proven to deal in stolen goods like Brummer. Is the Met going to poke into all the masterpieces it got from him? (Here's a selection.) Or just the ones where proof of wrongdoing is inescapable?
I'm much more interested in thefts from the 2020s than from the 1920s, but - the presence of looted, stolen, and/or smuggled artifacts in antiquities collections formed in the 20th century is the rule, not the exception museum press releases would have you believe.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/a...
Tess Davis of @combatlooting.bsky.social told OCCRP there are “surprisingly few legal sources” of artifacts, so criminals “launder” them by creating fake stories about their origins.
She recommended a stronger, more transparent legal market would tackle the black market.
