What do Kim Kardashian, the Arab Spring and the Louvre have in common? This unlikely trinity is part of an equally unlikely story in the international art world, a scandal that unintentionally arose thanks to Kim Kardashian, set against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, and in which the Louvre became embroiled by the exhibition of looted works of art from antiquity that now stand on display in Abu Dhabi.
This is not a story of looted art from days gone by, looted by former colonial rulers and now being reclaimed by the old colony in question in the face of shifting notions of rightful ownership. The stolen treasures in this case were purchased by the Louvre Abu Dhabi between 2014 and 2017, and smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos following the fall of dictator Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring in 2011.
Linked
In a form-fitting gold prom dress, Kardashian poses next to the gold sarcophagus of Egyptian priest Nedjemankh in the spring of 2018, on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. As usual, the photo travels the world until it ends up with someone who helped smuggle the sarcophagus out of Egypt years ago, but never received the promised money. The person in question alerts the Cairo police and denounces his accomplices. According to French media, this is the start of an international investigation that uncovers a large-scale network of illegal trade in antiques.
The Louvre finds itself at the heart of that affair when a hotshot from the French art world is arrested in May this year. Not only the Metropolitan in New York exhibits stolen art from ancient Egypt, a series of masterpieces in the Louvre Abu Dhabi also appear to have been stolen and illegally traded. It concerns seven works worth more than 50 million euros, including a memorial stone made of pink granite of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. And Jean-Luc Martinez, director of the Paris museum until a year earlier, appears to have been personally involved in the purchase.
His arrest caused a shock in the art world. He is not only a former director of the Louvre, Martinez is then ambassador for Aliph, the international alliance that protects heritage in conflict areas and fights against illegal trade in cultural goods. He is now suspected of money laundering and complicity in organized fraud.
It doesn’t stop there. Six more people are being charged with similar charges, both from within the Parisian art world and beyond. Among them are Christophe Kunicki, a renowned archaeological specialist of the Pierre Bergé & Associés auction house, his business and life partner Richard Semper, and a close acquaintance of Martinez, Jean-François Charnier. The latter was scientific director at Agence France Muséums (AFM), which advises the Louvre Abu Dhabi on purchases.
Prestigious
In a reconstruction based on judicial investigation files, Radio France outlines in mid-September how an international network of dealers acquires looted art in a sophisticated manner, obscures its provenance and prepares it for sale on the international art market with false certificates. The link with the Louvre is presumably made in 2016 by the renowned Parisian archaeologist Kunicki.
The opening of the Abu Dhabi museum is then in full preparation. As part of a cooperation agreement between France and the United Arab Emirates, it will borrow part of the collection and the name of the Louvre. Kunicki approaches the Louvre Abu Dhabi Acquisitions Committee to purchase a number of prestigious works: a bust of Cleopatra, a gold sarcophagus of Princess Henouttaouy, and Tutankhamun’s memorial stone, three of the museum’s total of seven works that have now been completed. identified as looted. As director of the Louvre, Martinez is involved in the acquisition. He agrees on the purchases proposed by Agence France Muséums.
Did Martinez know that the showpieces purchased under his eye were looted in the chaos of the Arab Spring in Egypt? It is one of the big questions in the international research that has been running since 2018. In addition to the art from the Louvre, dozens of other works are being examined that may also have been looted in the region.
Back to Egypt
And the golden sarcophagus that shone alongside Kardashian in New York, and which, according to French media, started the affair? After it was indeed stolen from Egypt in the Arab Spring, it returned to its country of origin in 2019.
At the time, the Metropolitan Museum had bought the 2,100-year-old showpiece from the auction house Pierre Bergé & Associés, the auction house where Kunicki works, the archaeologist who sold the stolen pieces to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Pierre Bergé & Associés has also been charged with, inter alia, money laundering, counterfeiting and fraud in an organized context.
Who is Jean Luc Martinez?
Jean-Luc Martinez (58) is one of the most talked-about suspects in the case of stolen Egyptian art. An archaeologist and art historian, he specializes in sculptures from ancient Greece. Martinez has been working at the Louvre since 1997, then as a curator and chief of heritage. He gradually rises to director, a position he holds from 2013 to 2021. In 2015, he presented a report to President Hollande with fifty French proposals to protect world heritage, at a time when heritage in Syria and Iraq is being seriously damaged by the war.