Where antiques are concerned, one cannot be too careful. Forgeries and stolen goods abound, so the buyer must be aware.
Loot From Ancient Wrecks
In 2019, Greek police arrested three men on the Aegean island of Kalymnos for allegedly plundering ancient shipwrecks and removing more than two dozen intact pottery vases. The picture shows Amphoras which are two-handled earthenware jars used to transport wine, olive oil and other foodstuffs in ancient cargo ships.
Loot From Ancient Egypt
In 2019, the gilded coffin that was featured at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is on its way back to Egypt after it was determined to be a looted antiquity, and a repatriation ceremony was held in New York for the Coffin of Nedjemankh.The picture shows the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (right) and Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry at the repatriation ceremony.
The New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the piece in good faith from a Paris art dealer in 2017 for about $4 million and made it the centrepiece of an exhibition. It was removed when its actual status became known and an apology was given to Egypt.
Investigators established the coffin was smuggled from Egypt through the United Arab Emirates, Germany and France, and the museum was given fraudulent documents, including a forged 1971 Egyptian export license.
