Former Louvre Museum Director Questioned by Police In Investigation – RisePEI

Jean-Luc Martinez, who served because the director of the Louvre in Paris from 2013 till final 12 months, was questioned by French authorities earlier this week as a part of its investigation into an alleged trafficking ring of antiquities, the Artwork Newspaper reported Wednesday.

The investigation facilities round objects that have been offered the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York and the Louvre Abu Dhabi within the United Arab Emirates, which has licensed the Louvre’s identify till 2037, as a part of a joint settlement between the UAE and France.

Martinez departed the esteemed establishment final 12 months, when his successor Laurence des Automobiles, the primary lady to steer the Louvre, took the helm in September. Through the closing 12 months of his controversial tenure, it was unclear whether or not his contract can be renewed by the French state and he even went on a media tour to petition for a 3rd time period because the establishment’s chief.

Along with Martinez, the French Central Workplace for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) additionally questioned the Vincent Rondot, the pinnacle of the Louvre’s Egyptian division, in addition to Olivier Perdu, an Egyptologist who edits the journal Revue d’Egyptologie, in line with a “supply near the investigation,” per the Artwork Newspaper.

Each Martinez, who was nonetheless in police custody on Wednesday night native time, in line with the Artwork Newspaper, and Perdu have denied wrongdoing. When reached by ARTnews, the Louvre declined to touch upon the state of affairs or to offer any assertion from Rondot.

As a part of the continuing investigation, two antiquities sellers have beforehand been detained. In March, Hamburg-based vendor Roben Dib was detained and subsequently charged with gang fraud and cash laundering. In 2020, Paris-based vendor Christophe Kunicki was arrested after which charged with legal conspiracy, gang fraud, and laundering. Each sellers have denied wrongdoing.

Kunicki had offered the Met a golden sarcophagus in 2017 for €3.5 million. The museum returned the item to Egypt in 2019 after an investigation uncovered that it been given faked provenance paperwork, which falsely claimed the sarcophagus has been legally exported from Egypt in 1971. The investigation subsequently uncovered that Dib had been concerned in forging these paperwork.

The Met didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Authorities are additionally wanting into 9 different objects offered by Kunicki and Dib to both the Met or the Louvre Abu Dhabi for a complete of some €50 million.

Although not one of the objects the place offered to the Louvre in Paris, any objects acquired by the Louvre Abu Dhabi should be accredited by a joint governmental fee that’s chaired by the Louvre Paris’s director, which on the time would have been Martinez.