Agents of the National Police have arrested an antiques seller in Barcelona for the allegedly illicit sale of an Egyptian sculpture valued at 190,000 euros. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the investigation began at the end of last year, when the Netherlands authorities sent a document to Spain in which they reported that an Egyptian archaeological and cultural heritage object, sold in that country, had been illegally marketed on the European market.
The sculpture was offered during the annual art fair The European Fine Art Fair (Tefaf) in Maastricht by a Swiss gallery, after having been purchased from a German gallery. The piece is the head of an Egyptian sculpture that dates back to approximately 1450 BC. During the aforementioned fair, the Swiss gallery that owns the sculpture learned that the piece had been acquired from a Spanish gallery owner, who was linked to the antiques trade in conflict zones such as North Africa and the Middle East, for so the gallery chose to hand the sculpture over to the Dutch police.
The investigations made it possible to prove that the piece had been acquired in July 2015 by the person in charge of a Barcelona establishment from an international company based in Bangkok.
The Spanish gallery owner justified the origin of the piece by providing a document that collected information on several archaeological pieces belonging to a Spanish collection from the seventies and which he used to falsify the origin of the sculpture, with data on another similar piece that could fit with the description.
The arrested person was perfectly aware of the illicit origin of the Egyptian head seized in the Netherlands, and had carried out various maneuvers to create a past that would hide the piece's true origin in order to introduce it into the licit market, which is the one with the most benefits. contributes. The investigators, after the checks carried out, were able to prove that it was a false document.
Based on all the facts, the owner of the antiques establishment was arrested as allegedly responsible for the crimes of money laundering, smuggling and document falsification.
