Alleged antiquities smuggler’s children convicted of money laundering in Germany

A Hamburg criminal court convicted two children of German dealer Serop Simonian—alleged to have led a trafficking ring specializing in Egyptian antiquities—of money laundering on 24 August, ordering the confiscation of €32 million and issuing fines totaling more than €120,000, according to AFP. The court did not disclose their names, but the charges align with those against Abraham Simonian and his sister Alice Simonian Schad; it linked them to sales to the Louvre Abu Dhabi including a Cleopatra bust, a stela bearing Tutankhamun’s name, and a princess’s funerary set. Authorities said total sales to the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which bought a golden sarcophagus later seized in New York) amounted to €70 million; €26 million was confiscated from Abraham and €6 million from Alice, with fines of more than €90,000 and €30,000 respectively. The siblings appealed, and a separate charge against Abraham for collaborating with a gang to traffic stolen goods was dropped for lack of evidence; the broader investigation involved Manhattan DA antiquities prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos and a French intermediary dealer, Christophe Kunicki, charged in Paris.

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