Former Louvre Director Jean-Luc Martinez Indicted on Antiquities-Trafficking Charges
Jean-Luc Martinez, who served as director of the Louvre in Paris from 2013 by 2021, has been charged with trafficking antiquities, in keeping with a number of studies. His indictment late Wednesday night on fees of “complicity in fraud in an organized gang and laundering by false facilitation of the origin of property” comes after three days of questioning by the French Central Workplace for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC). Vincent Rondot, who heads the Louvre’s Egyptian division, and Olivier Perdu, a revered Egyptologist, have been additionally detained and questioned however have been launched with out fees pending additional investigation.
Martinez, who made headlines late final 12 months as he fought to retain his job earlier than being changed by Laurence des Vehicles, the primary lady to helm the Louvre, is alleged to have been complicit within the buy of looted artworks for the Louvre’s yet-to open Abu Dhabi department. In his capability as director of the Louvre, Martinez till early this 12 months chaired the joint governmental fee whose approval is required earlier than an object may be acquired by the Louvre Abu Dhabi. He’s alleged to have signed off on a variety of purchases of artworks regardless of being conscious of their unlawful provenance. Martinez has denied the accusations.
The indictment of Martinez follows from the March arrest of German-Lebanese supplier Roben Dib on suspicion of involvement with the sale of looted objects to the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork, New York, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Dib is alleged to be linked to French supplier Christophe Kunicki, who in 2020 was arrested and charged with operating a wide-ranging enterprise trafficking looted objects from Egypt and the Center East. That arrest stemmed from the sale by Kunicki to the Met of a golden sarcophagus courting to the primary century BCE. Having didn’t carry out due diligence concerning its provenance, Met officers have been stunned to be told by the Manhattan DA’s workplace that it had been stolen throughout the Arab Spring of 2011. The museum issued an apology and repatriated the coffin. Martinez is suspected of getting accredited the acquisition of a number of antiquities from each Dib and Kunicki regardless of being conscious that the objects have been stolen: Each Dib and Kunicki have denied wrongdoing and have contended that the objects in query have been legally obtained.
