Sunday, December 25, 2016

"New York Antiquities Dealer Charged With Trafficking Looted Artifacts"

AN:
The dealer is now accused of disposing of records of antiquities in the gallery’s holdings, inherited from her mother in 2011. Prosecutors say she falsified new provenances for hundreds of works, 380 of which were sold at Christie’s in 2012 for a total $12.8 million.

Besides arranging false papers for these and other works, Wiener is also accused of having items—like a $500,000 bronze Buddha—restored to conceal signs of illegal excavations, like shovel marks. The aforementioned Buddha was seized in the March raid, while affixed with a selling price of $1.5 million.

Another example,