The Medici Conspiracy
Peter Watson & Cecilia Todechini - The Medici Conspiracy
ISBN 978-1-58648-5
This book is a about a large antiquities smuggling ring that had worked for decades - and the fact that many museums and galleries know very well that they are buying stolen antiquities. But having a big collection is the priority, of course.
The ring was lead by Italian dealer Giacomo Medici. Medici had a de facto base of stolen antiquities in the international side of the Zurich airport. The art squad of the Italian carabinieri had to deal with secretive Swiss authorities and obstructive American ones to get into the bottom of all the double-dealing and obfuscation of the antiquities market.
One of the people involved was Marion True of the J. Paul Getty's museum - who obviously knew where the items came from because she kept correspondence with Medici. She also ended up in various American articles about the matter which indirectly lead me to get this book for myself.
There is lots of information about illicit dealing of antiquities, using "triangulation" (third party middlemen) to hide origin and provenance (practice also used in illicit arms market) and use of Swiss extrality zones to hide and deal with stolen items.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/4444.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
ISBN 978-1-58648-5
This book is a about a large antiquities smuggling ring that had worked for decades - and the fact that many museums and galleries know very well that they are buying stolen antiquities. But having a big collection is the priority, of course.
The ring was lead by Italian dealer Giacomo Medici. Medici had a de facto base of stolen antiquities in the international side of the Zurich airport. The art squad of the Italian carabinieri had to deal with secretive Swiss authorities and obstructive American ones to get into the bottom of all the double-dealing and obfuscation of the antiquities market.
One of the people involved was Marion True of the J. Paul Getty's museum - who obviously knew where the items came from because she kept correspondence with Medici. She also ended up in various American articles about the matter which indirectly lead me to get this book for myself.
There is lots of information about illicit dealing of antiquities, using "triangulation" (third party middlemen) to hide origin and provenance (practice also used in illicit arms market) and use of Swiss extrality zones to hide and deal with stolen items.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/4444.html. Please comment there using OpenID.