Thank you for sharing that article. I follow ArtNews but hadn't seen that one...
As someone with a particular interest in ancient coin
provenance, and having studied and taught criminology/criminal justice, I have many thoughts on this case. (I never taught
antiquities crime, but I pay special attention to legislation, treaties, and criminal and civil cases involving
ancient coins, in the U.S. and abroad.)
I won’t say much about the current arrestee/defendant, since the case isn’t resolved and I don’t know if there are
discussion board rules specific to this kind of scenario. (The linked ArtNews articles suggests a quick resolution may be in the works.)
First, this is not a surprising case for the
New York County District Attorney’s Office. One of their Assistant District Attorneys, Matthew Bogdanos, has been an enthusiastic prosecutor of
antiquities dealers and collectors, and museums, for the past 10-12 years. (He first made a name for himself investigating and recovering objects from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad after it was completely sacked when the government fell. He wrote a famous book about it.) He’s
had many high-profile cases and prosecuted many other collectors and dealers whose names we would recognize.
(I'm actually surprised NYINC is even
still held in
New York for that reason, instead of say,
Philadelphia or Boston or Washington DC... Or LA or
San Francisco. Personally, I'd vote for Chicago.)
My only question
had been whether this would continue under the new Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, Jr. He was elected in Nov. 2021, replacing Cyrus Vance, Jr. as the DA last year. As Bogdanos’ boss, Vance was equally enthusiastic about high profile
antiquities arrests and prosecutions. (See, e.g.:
https://culturalpropertynews.org/vance-caps-career-steinhardt-gives-up-70-million-in-antiquities/) This case was probably being prepared/investigated since Vance’s term.
Still unclear how aggressively Bragg will pursue coin dealers,
antiquities collectors, and museums.
Second, I’m sure I’m not the only one who was immediately reminded of a similar incident 11 years ago – right down to the major arrest at NYINC. In that case, I think it’s okay to say the person’s name, since he pled guilty and wrote an article about it (
part of
his plea deal) for the
ANS Magazine: “
Caveat Emptor: A Guide to Responsible Coin Collecting,” by Arnold-Peter
Weiss, in
ANS Magazine 11 (33): Pp 32ff. (Issue downloadable here, and probably elsewhere:
https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/ans-magazine-fall-2012/. It's worth reading. I'd recommend it to everyone, if only for historical significance.)
He was the principal at Nomos AG and a Trustee of the
American Numismatic Society. He
had a relationship with
CNG as well. A few coins seized at NYINC 2012 (between 2 and 4 coins, I need to fact-check) were to be sold in
Triton XV Session 3, “Selections from Cabinet W,” which would’ve achieved the highest-average hammer prices of any
auction since the 1974 Kunstfreundes sale, and presumably exceeded it. The remaining 15 coins were sold and netted almost $5 million (
https://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coins/despite-withdrawn-lots-cabinet-w-collections-.html). The rest of the
Triton XV sale took place, including Sessions 1 & 2, now known as
BCD Thessaly II (from which I own three coins).
The 2012 NYINC arrest and seizure of “Cabinet W” surely wasn’t great for the ancient coin world, but as far I can tell, it passed without doing catastrophic damage. No doubt it helped accelerate the expansion of MOU’s to new countries (treaty agreements to prevent the import of undocumented cultural objects). It seems the convicted collector-dealer in that case has either largely disappeared from
numismatics or is now much lower-profile. (He’s
still highly prolific in other domains.) Hopefully (from my perspective), people began paying a
bit more attention to
provenance and doing a better job of documenting it wherever possible. In my notes, though, I’ve recorded many other high-profile arrests in the numismatic community since then. Many of those people are
still "household names" in the coin world; however you feel about it, this is something that happens.
Will the current incident be as easily forgotten? The political climate now is different. In recent years, the general public has become much more familiar with the concepts of
antiquities laws, repatriation, and
provenance (false or otherwise). The British Museum is now considered a persona non grata in some quarters. I could see things going either way…
