2022.06.03 16:37World eye

米検察、メトロポリタン美術館の収蔵品押収 ルーブル前館長捜査に関連

【ニューヨークAFP=時事】米ニューヨークの検察はこのほど、仏パリのルーブル美術館前館長が関与したとされる略奪品の売買に関連し、メトロポリタン美術館に収蔵されている古代エジプトの遺物5点を押収した。(写真は紀元54年~68年ごろの女性の肖像画。米ニューヨーク州最高裁が出した捜査令状から)
 マンハッタン区検事局は、押収された5点の価値は300万ドル(約3億9000万円)に上るとしている。出エジプト記の場面を描いた紀元前450~250年前の麻布の断片や、紀元54~68年ごろの女性の肖像画などが含まれている。
 裁判所の書類によると、ニューヨーク州の判事が先月19日に押収を命じた。
 地区検察の担当者は2日、AFPに対し、今回の押収は先週仏パリで、ルーブル美術館のジャンリュック・マルティネズ前館長に対する予審判事による捜査が開始されたことに関係していると話した。
 2013~21年にルーブルの館長を務めたマルティネズ氏をめぐっては、民主化運動「アラブの春」の混乱に乗じエジプトで略奪されたとみられる考古学的遺物の来歴の隠蔽(いんぺい)を共謀した疑いが浮上している。
 この件を最初に報じた月刊紙アートニュースペーパーによると、押収された5点はメトロポリタン美術館が13~15年に購入した。
 同美術館は、17年に購入した古代エジプトの神官のひつぎが略奪されたものだったと判明したことを受け、19年にエジプトに返還している。
 19年の地区検事局の記録によると、このひつぎの売買に、独ハンブルクの美術商の男をはじめ今回ルーブルの件で捜査対象となった人物が複数関わっていた。【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2022/06/03-16:37)
2022.06.03 16:37World eye

Egyptian antiques seized from New York's Met in Louvre probe


New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris's Louvre Museum.
The artifacts -- which include a group of painted linen fragments, dated between 250 and 450 BC, depicting a scene from the Book of Exodus -- are worth more than $3 million, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.
A New York state judge ordered their confiscation on May 19, a court document shows.
The pieces were seized pursuant to the warrant, a spokesperson for the district attorney told AFP on Thursday.
He added that they are related to the investigation in Paris in which Jean-Luc Martinez, who ran the Louvre from 2013 to 2021, was charged last week with complicity in fraud and concealing the origin of criminally obtained works by false endorsement.
The fraud is thought to involve several other art experts, according to French investigative weekly Canard Enchaine.
The five pieces seized from the Met were purchased by the famous museum between 2013 and 2015, according to The Art Newspaper, which first reported the news.
When contacted by AFP, a Met spokesperson referred to a previous statement in which the museum said it was a victim of an international criminal organization.
In 2019, the museum returned the gilded sarcophagus of the priest Nedjemankh to Egypt after New York prosecutors determined it had been stolen during the revolts against ex-president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The Met had purchased the coffin in 2017 and later said it had been a victim of false statements and fake documentation.
French investigators are also seeking to establish whether pieces looted during the Arab Spring protests were acquired by the Louvre's branch in Abu Dhabi.
Several of the individuals charged in the case -- including Roben Dib, owner of a gallery in Hamburg and who is currently in custody -- were involved in the sarcophagus's sale to the Met, according to a 2019 report by the Manhattan district attorney.
The Book of Exodus painting is valued at $1.6 million. Also among the five works is a painted portrait of a woman dated from between the years AD 54 to 68 worth $1.2 million.

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