Art crime
Miami art dealer sentenced to more than four years in prison for smuggling ivory sculptures
Eduardo Ulises Martinez was convicted of illegally transporting ivory and obstruction of justice
Canadian police uncover 'biggest art fraud in world history'
Eight suspects are arrested and more than 1,000 works seized following investigation into forgeries of paintings by the Ojibwe artist Norval Morrisseau
Palm Beach art dealer pleads guilty to selling counterfeit blue-chip art
Daniel Elie Bouaziz was accused of selling fake works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist says he was conned in dealer’s $1.6m art fraud scheme
Detroit-area gallery owner Wendy Halsted Beard was arrested last year on mail and wire fraud charges following an FBI investigation
Appeals court upholds antiquities trafficking charges against former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez and curator Jean-François Charnier
The appellate court judges’ decision came as a surprise, as the general prosecutor had asked for the charges—which relate to the acquisition of Egyptian antiquities by the Louvre Abu Dhabi—to be dropped
Authorities in New York return 14 looted artefacts valued at $2.5m to Italy, including a black-figure hydria by the renowned Priam Painter
The repatriated artefacts were looted by an international network of “high-profile antiquities traffickers and smugglers, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office
Ukrainian art dealer found guilty of stealing £1.3m Paul Signac from French museum
Vadym Huzhva handed a five-year sentence for 2018 theft and for stealing four other paintings in France, including a Renoir
Antiquities dealer Ali Aboutaam given 18-month suspended sentence by Geneva court
Decision brings the six-year investigation into the provenance of 15,000 antiquities from Phoenix Ancient Art to an end, with only a handful found to lack proper documentation
Former manager at the Art Institute of Chicago accused of stealing $2m from the museum
The former employee faces four federal charges over an alleged fraud scheme that went on for 13 years
Police recover paintings by Elaine de Kooning and others stolen in Colorado art heist
Paintings worth $400,000 that were stolen from a storage truck on 14 December 2022 have been located in a Colorado hotel room
Art crime specialist honoured by New Zealand for services to field
Penelope Jackson is the author of a book that considers how illicit activity differs when undertaken by women
Moscow-based architect, who built ‘Putin’s Palace’, refuses to return to Italy to face trial
Italian Lanfranco Cirillo—whose 150-strong art collection was seized last year—will be tried in absentia by an Italian court next month for tax and money laundering crimes
More than $400,000 of art stolen from a padlocked truck in Boulder, Colorado
Police are investigating the theft of five paintings from a vehicle in a hotel car park
Italian police widen fraud investigation after seizing Rubens painting from Genoa exhibition
The Carabinieri accuse four people of downgrading and illegally exporting the Old Master work, which has now been returned to the show in the Palazzo Ducale
Collector cracks art heist cold case with a pillowcase and reverse Google image search
Decades after it was stolen from the Worcester Art Museum, collector Clifford Schorer spotted a missing Dutch Golden Age painting printed on a throw pillow
Following his arrest in Italy, Old Master forgery suspect Giuliano Ruffini is turned over to French authorities
After seven years of investigations, Ruffini has been handed over to French authorities, likely setting the stage for a trial in Paris
Police recover bulk of objects stolen in audacious £100m art heist from Dresden museum
Announcement was made during the trial of six men which began in January and is due to resume this week
Paris gallerists—found guilty of selling Picasso works stolen by handyman—receive suspended jail sentences
Belle et Belle gallery has now been dissolved, closing the chapter on a decade-long criminal investigation
Suspected Old Master forger Giuliano Ruffini is arrested in Italy after turning himself in
The 77-year-old, wanted by French police for "fraud, money laundering and forgery of works of art", was released after ten days in custody
Suspected Old Master forger Giuliano Ruffini—wanted by French police—cannot be found
The French dealer, who is under investigation for selling a series of allegedly forged paintings, has had a warrant out for his arrest since 2019
Alleged Native American scalp seized from auction house specialised in Confederate and Nazi memorabilia
Authorities received an anonymous tip regarding an object listed for sale on the auction house’s website and described as a Mescalero Apache scalp
Manhattan district attorney returns 187 artefacts tied to disgraced dealer Subhash Kapoor to Pakistan
The objects associated with Kapoor, along with another five pieces returned to Pakistan, were cumulatively valued at $3.4m
Stolen statue linked to antiquities trafficker Doris Wiener repatriated to Cambodia
The sandstone vishnu statue was stolen from a seventh-century temple and smuggled to Manhattan in 1995, when it was sold to a private collector
Disgraced antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor sentenced to ten years in prison by Indian court
The ruling culminates an extensive investigation into a smuggling ring headed by Kapoor
A handyman stole hundreds of Picassos from two heiresses—now the Paris gallery that bought them is on trial
Verdict for the owners of Belle et Belle is expected in November
Charm, pedigree, contacts: how to dupe the art market
Court documents from the ongoing Inigo Philbrick fraud saga reveal that the secretive art market and the sheer attractiveness of its lifestyle will always suck the punters in
Mexican government investigating collector who claims he burned a Frida Kahlo drawing for an NFT charity project
Collector Martin Mobarak purportedly set a 1944 Kahlo drawing on fire in a martini glass while a mariachi band burst into song during a ceremony at his Miami mansion
British art dealer Robert Newland pleads guilty to conspiring with Inigo Philbrick to defraud collectors and financiers
Newland was arrested in the UK in February and extradited to the United States in September, where he admitted his role in the $86m scheme for which Inigo Philbrick was sentenced to seven years in prison
A 2,000-year-old Israeli coin minted during the ‘great Jewish revolt’ repatriated by US authorities
The coin, a Quarter Shekel valued at $1m, was looted in from Israel in 2002 and had been headed for auction before being recovered by US Homeland Security agents in 2017
Wanted in the US, Lebanese antiquities collector maintains his innocence, says his ‘big mistake’ was trusting New York art crime official
Lotfi addresses allegations that led to a warrant being issued for his arrest in a statement and interview, giving new details on the extraordinary story of the Metropolitan Museum's gold sarcophagus