Two Convicted in Hamburg Court of Selling Looted Egyptian Antiquities
Two people were convicted in a Hamburg court on Monday for money laundering in a case that ARTnews said closely matches the investigation into German dealer Serop Simonian’s alleged Egyptian antiquities trafficking network. The Hamburg court ordered the defendants to forfeit €32 million (about $37 million) and pay fines totaling more than €90,000 (about $105,000). Hamburg prosecutors said one defendant (“S.”) faced charges including receiving stolen goods and fraud, while another (“Sc.”) was charged with money laundering, tied to an alleged conspiracy beginning as early as 2013 to sell looted Egyptian antiquities using forged paperwork. Prosecutors alleged the group sold the burial complex of Princess Henuttawy to a museum in the United Arab Emirates for €4.5 million (about $5.3 million), and the broader Simonian-linked circle has been connected to seizures of antiquities from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022 and to Serop Simonian’s arrest and transfer to France in 2023.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Censorship, Looted Treasures, and Artists Under Watch