One of the world’s largest antique art collectors turned over 180 stolen antiques valued at $ 70 million and received the first lifetime ban on acquiring antiques, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced. This after the resolution of a multi-year multinational investigation into his criminal conduct.
This is the art collector Michael Steinhardt who was seized pieces looted and illegally smuggled from 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks and lacked verifiable provenance before appearing on the international art market, according to the Statement of Facts. which summarizes the research.
According to documents presented in court, the criminal investigation into Steinhardt began in February 2017. While the Prosecutor’s Office investigated the bull’s head stolen from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War it was determined that Steinhardt had purchased the multi-million dollar statue and then loaned it to the Metropolitan Art Museum. Months after the seizure of the piece, the Prosecutor’s Office announced the formation of its Antiquities Trafficking Unit with the repatriation of the Bull’s Head and the Calf Carrier, a second billionaire marble statute seized from Steinhardt to the Lebanese Republic in December of 2017.
In the process of finding the Lebanese statues, the District Attorney’s Office found that the defendant also possessed additional looted antiquities in his apartment and office and, shortly after, launched a criminal investigation by a grand jury into their acquisition, possession and sale. of more than 1,000 antiques since at least 1987.
As part of this investigation into Steinhardt’s criminal conduct, the Prosecutor’s Office executed 17 court-ordered search warrants and conducted joint investigations with law enforcement authorities in 11 countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya , Syria and Turkey.
Of the Steinhardt acquisitions, the Prosecutor’s Office developed compelling evidence that 180 were stolen from their home country. In addition to their universal lack of provenance, the pieces exhibited numerous other probative indicators of looting.
Prior to the Steinhardt purchase, the report says, 171 of the 180 seized antiques first appeared in the possession of individuals who law enforcement authorities later determined were antiquities dealers, some of whom have been convicted of antiquities trafficking. Additionally, 101 first appeared dirty (or unrestored) in photographs; and 100 were covered in dirt or scale prior to the Steinhardt purchase. Many of the seized antiquities were trafficked after civil unrest or looting.
Among the pieces delivered in this agreement are: The Stag’s Head Rhyton, The Larnax, The Ercolano Fresco, The Gold Bowl y Three Death Masks.
“For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a voracious appetite for looted artifacts without worrying about the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the serious cultural damage he caused around the world,” said the U.S. attorney for Vance district. “His search for ‘new’ additions to display and sell knew no geographical or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities dealers, criminal bosses, money launderers and grave robbers that he relied on to expand his collection” added the prosecutor.
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