Looting

US authorities return antiquities valued at $10m to India

The repatriated artefacts—1,440 in all—included pieces that had passed through the New York galleries of Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener

Art marketcomment

Comment | EU’s new anti-looting law is another blow for legitimate trade

Though laudible in its aim to kerb trafficking of stolen goods, planned rules will impose unreasonable burdens on lawful and genuine trade

Rudy Capildeo
Lootingcomment

The case for a cross-border approach for recovering Europe's Nazi-looted art

If governments are committed to the Washington Principles, they should create a co-ordinating body

Netherlands to return 288 items looted in colonial era to Indonesia

The repatriations show policy continuity despite the new right-wing government, experts say

A new online museum is sharing the histories of repatriated objects

The digital Museum of Looted Antiquities aspires to be an encyclopaedic repository on returned cultural artefacts—and to expose smuggling networks

US authorities return a $3.7m trove of antiquities to Greece

Many of the 30 objects being repatriated are linked to the disgraced dealers Michael Ward and Robin Symes

The long and curious journey of the British Museum's Asante Ewer

The museum is investigating how the English-made jug turned up in West Africa before being seized during the 19th-century Anglo-Ashanti wars

‘I've never unearthed anything this big in my life’: Assyrian sculpture with rich history dug up in northern Iraq

The 2,700-year-old lamassu—a protective deity—had been excavated previously, in 1992, but was reburied for its protection

US authorities return 33 looted antiquities to Cambodia

The artefacts belonged to the late collector George Lindemann and were turned over to authorities voluntarily by his family

Manhattan District Attorney's Office seizes $5m bronze bust in Turkish repatriation sting

The sculpture, which depicts a daughter of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, is the second out-of-state item to be seized by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit

More stolen archaeological treasures return to Italy from the US

The Menil Collection denies claims in an Italian police statement that 60 of the disputed artefacts were housed at the Texas museum

Antiquities trafficking is not ‘the third largest illicit trade in the world’, researchers claim

New report traces the origins of the oft-repeated superlative, which its authors say is incorrect and actually makes it harder to fight trafficking

California man on trial for allegedly importing Roman mosaic looted during Syrian civil war to US

Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi is accused of misrepresenting the true value of a mosaic that was looted from Syria in 2015

Looted artefacts linked to disgraced British dealer Robin Symes returned to Italy

Restitution follows the return of 350 Neolithic and Byzantine objects from the same source to Greece

Sudannews

Sudan conflict: pro-democracy artists under attack and museums at risk of looting, sources say

Leading artists and museum professionals raise fears as violence erupts in Khartoum

Antiquities trafficking investigator appointed president of Harvard Law Review—a position once held by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Barack Obama

Apsara Iyer says looting of Indian temples was a "wake-up call" to understanding how cultural heritage and crime intersect

Denver Art Museum returns donations from associate of antiquities smuggler Douglas Latchford

The museum has issued a statement further distancing itself from the late Emma Bunker, who allegedly falsified provenance for items looted from Cambodia

US officials return antiquities looted from Iraq Museum in 2003

The artefacts, cylinder and stamp seals dating back thousands of years, were seized after a US collector tried to sell one in an online auction

Stolen statue linked to antiquities trafficker Doris Wiener repatriated to Cambodia

The sandstone vishnu statue was stolen from a seventh-century temple and smuggled to Manhattan in 1995, when it was sold to a private collector

Qatari sheikh’s rare ivory mask, stolen from Benin City by the British, is one of five on public display—none in Nigeria

The 16th-century mask was withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s over a decade ago amid escalating calls for restitution

V&A likely to return looted Asante gold treasures to Ghana

Museum’s director Tristram Hunt wants to loosen regulations on restituting artefacts seized by British forces in the 19th century

Ukraine gets emergency Red List for art as evidence mounts of 'trading networks flowing West'

The International Council of Museums has worked with Interpol to create the list, with border patrols on "high alert" to seize art stolen from Ukrainian museums—but is it too late?

Oxford and Cambridge universities approve returning 213 looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria

Charity Commission could veto the decision to repatriate objects from Ashmolean Museum and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Nearly 20 years after the invasion of Iraq, an artist revisits the looting of the national museum in Baghdad

The Iranian-born artist Abbas Akhavan’s installation at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver re-stages a scene captured at the Iraq Museum in 2003

Seized antiquities sent from Ukraine to go on show at British Museum

Hoard of medieval metalwork had been illegally mailed to the UK, and will be sent to Kyiv museum when safe to do so

The hunt for looted Cambodian objects—are they hidden in the West's museums?

Plus, the dark truth of the Marcos family’s extravagance and Ruth Asawa at Modern Art Oxford

Sponsored byChristie's

Saving Ukraine’s heritage: an eyewitness account of relief efforts

Plus, the Cezanne blockbuster at The Art Institute of Chicago and Nicola L.’s Gold Femme Commode at Alison Jacques

Sponsored byChristie's

Three looted Palmyra sculptures seized in Geneva freeport return to Syria

The two funerary reliefs and the head of a priest were exhibited at the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva in 2017

Major art trade groups join forces to stop looted Afghan artefacts reaching Western market

International trade groups including top British antique dealers vow to oppose trade of Afghan heritage artefacts under Taliban control