Chasing Aphrodite
Researching the illicit antiquities trade for two decades as an investigative reporter, author, blogger, tweeter, investigator, founder @MuseumofLoot and now...skeeter?
chasingaphrodite.com
museumofloot.org
achillesresearch.org
- While Debie is critical of practices that overlook provenance issues and supports the return of looted artefacts, he notes that the new EU regulation, set to come into law in June 2025, “forces collectors to prove something that is often impossible”. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/09/c...
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- Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite“In March, Pallot, who was the expert of the Galerie Didier Aaron, faced trial for commercial fraud, along with a carpenter and restorer, Bruno Desnoues, who admitted to fabricating the forgeries. The prosecutor asked for three years of prison time” www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/05/e... #forgery
- Should educators ever teach with materials obtained illegally or unethically? “As an archaeologist who teaches at Emory, I have decided yes: Learning with and from these objects can help amend their problematic acquisition—so long as that history pervades the lesson” www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
- Art Institute of Chicago director James Rondeau is under investigation after getting intoxicated and removing his clothes on a flight to Munich on April 18. He is now on leave and his job in jeopardy as the museum investigates the incident. news.artnet.com/art-world/ar...
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- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeIndia tries to halt auction of Piprahwa gems found with Buddha’s remains, which it says “constitute inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
- Congrats to @kathleenduval.bsky.social on the Pulitzer Prize for history!
- The National Endowment for the Arts withdrew and canceled grant offers to numerous arts organizations around the country on Friday night, sending a round of email notifications out just hours after President Trump proposed eliminating the agency in his next budget. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05...
- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeOn May 19 a new book will be published open access that addresses some important topics. It’s called _ How Republics Die: Creeping Authoritarianism in Ancient Rome and Beyond_ Edd. by @davidrafferty.bsky.social, Christopher J. Dart, Frederik & Juliaan Vervaet: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isb...
- Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite[NEW VIDEO] Archaeology is under siege from popular anti-intellectual influencers. I document threats and harassment and provide actionable strategies for promoting public educational content Watch, like, comment, and share to boost visibility 🧪🏺 #AncientBlueSky youtu.be/F5PvwzgfKKw
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- TEFAF NY starts May 9: Charles Ede will show 70 ancient objects at its booth this year, the priciest being an $850,000 Roman marble torso of a youth, and the most affordable being a Byzantine silver spoon (from the 4th to the 6th century B.C.) priced at $2,000. 🧐 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/a...
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- Here's a great new pod with @anthropaulicy.bsky.social talking about her work tracking the online trade in looted antiquities with Amr al Azm @atharproject.bsky.social peoplingthepast.com/2025/04/29/p...
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- “This was not the outcome anyone wanted” Boston MFA’s promised collection of Benin bronzes will be returned to Robert Owen Lehman Jr., the wealthy scion and collector, rather than the people from whom they were stolen. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/a...
- Sudanese officials say tens of thousands of artefacts were destroyed or shipped off while the RSF was in control of central Khartoum "They destroyed our identity, and our history," Ikhlas Abdel Latif Ahmed, of Sudan's National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums www.bbc.com/news/article...
- Greek police have arrested six suspected antiquities smugglers after a massive undercover operation on the island of Crete where they seized and recovered over 40 ancient artifacts the smuggling ring had been allegedly trying to sell on the black market. greekreporter.com/2025/04/24/g...
- Barron’s: Antiquities, collectibles, and cultural objects have long been exempt from U.S. trade duties. But President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, announced April 2, may put some of those exemptions at risk. www.barrons.com/articles/ant...
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- IAA: A Dimona resident was detained for questioning after the search uncovered not only the archaeological treasures but also a cache of weapons, ammunition, and currency. www.jpost.com/archaeology/...
- DOGE descends on The National Gallery, a public-private partnership that is not part of any branch of government but receives funding from Congress for operations. The bulk of its support for acquisitions comes from a private trust. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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- BIG: Qatari royal Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani won his lawsuit against Phoenix Ancient Art, which sourced items for his Al Thani Collection, over the false provenance of £4.1 million of ancient artefacts www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
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- Globe and Mail: Sudan museum curators get first devastating look inside after two years of warfare Since Khartoum’s recapture from paramilitary groups, curators have learned that the damage left behind is worse than anyone thought www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...
- The murder, the museum and the monument How the discovery of a long-lost monument shattered the trust between a Japanese American community and the museum built to preserve their history. www.hcn.org/issues/57-4/...
- Another failure of TEFAF’s “famously rigorous” vetting procedures: “He spotted the amphora when the gallery offered it last month at Tefaf Maastricht, one of the world’s foremost art and antiques fairs”
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- An oil lamp leads customs to a 20 million treasure trove of trafficked antiquities Archaeological objects have been imported massively and illegally for years by the network. Taxes amount to more than 2 million. www.24heures.ch/trafic-une-l...
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- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeA few tips for NEH grantees: 1) if you've spent money on an awarded grant but have not yet drawn down the funds, make sure to submit the paperwork to drawn down funds ASAP. 2) the NYTimes article suggests that "DOGE" might cancel awards. If you receive an email from DOGE cancelling your NEH award,
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- The Art Institute is trying to have it both ways with the Buddha’s repatriation. It is seeking credit for having a provenance division and returning the Buddha, but is not disclosing the involvement of its own major donors, the Alsdorfs www.propublica.org/article/art-...
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- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeSomething a bit different for #FindsFriday! ‘Peckham Rock’ hoax cave art with authentic-looking label, installed without permission in the British Museum in 2005, by the street artist known as #Banksy ‘Found’ 3 days later in the Roman Britain gallery! 😳 Marker pen on lump of concrete! 😁 📷 me
- A Cultural Revolution: Trump executive order announces an ideological purge of US federal cultural organizations, starting with the Smithsonian. VP JD Vance will be “seeking to remove improper ideology from such properties” 🚨🚨🚨 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
- On Tuesday, Bill Pallot and five others said to be involved in a scheme to unload fakes onto unsuspecting buyers attended the first day of a criminal trial in Pontoise, near Paris, where they stand accused of trafficking in counterfeit antique furniture www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/w...
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- Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite2013 deposition of a leading antiquities dealer dismissing the idea of getting a TL test to authenticate a Greek terracotta statue because... someone from the Met had at some point looked at it? Sigh.
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- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeThis is the best piece of reporting I’ve seen so far on what is going on at IMLS. I encourage everyone who cares about the key role that libraries and museums play in the United States to read it. news.artnet.com/art-world/do...
- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeMe and countless other authors today…😂
- Some curious choices here to lead the British Museum thru what should be a major era of reform: “The Prime Minister has appointed Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE, Tom Holland, Dr. Tiffany Jenkins, Martha Kearney and Claudia Winkleman as trustees of the British Museum” www.gov.uk/government/n...
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- The buried lead here: “Thus, many of the artifacts in Tomb II [at Vergina] belonged to Alexander the Great.” Wow!
- Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite"On October 8, 1931, a law went into effect requiring every Italian university professor to sign an oath pledging their loyalty to the government of Benito Mussolini. Out of over 1,200 professors in the country, only 12 refused. All of them were immediately fired." www.chronicle.com/article/what...
- someone crack the Linear A code pls!
- This police raid on the Papadimitriou compounds in Greece shows that the investigation into alleged trafficking by the shipping family of Robin Symes' partner Christos Michailidis (Despina P's brother) is still active and headed to court. One to watch: greekcitytimes.com/2025/03/20/p...
- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeConfirmed DOGE is currently inside IMLS headquarters.
- The Bloomberg site was once home to a 3rd-century CE temple dedicated to the Roman god Mithras. www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...
- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeWhen you erase the history of the code talkers, you are erasing the history of the Second World War. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
- The Met Museum is engaged in a major PR campaign to shake free of its reputation as a hoarder of looted art. This week that campaign led to remarkably similar stories in America’s two leading papers touting the museum’s “proactive” efforts to address the problem. Do the facts match the hype?
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- Nerves at TEFAF over new EU regs aimed at combating terrorism EU Regulation 2019/880 imposing stricter import controls on antiquities and artworks worth more than €18,000 Objects with unclear provenance risk being denied entry at customs. news.artnet.com/market/takea...
- Here we go…
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- Reposted by Chasing AphroditeIMLS is the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It's about $200 million per year for libraries and $50 million for museums. Not a lot for the federal budget, but a huge piece of the culture and knowledge system - which is why MAGA is eliminating it.
- This, by the by, is an effing disaster if it holds up. The number of public libraries that will go under if IMLS is shuttered is mind-boggling. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
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- CNN: Ukrainian art historians and museum directors are doing everything they can to retrieve stolen works and protect what remains. www.cnn.com/2025/03/08/s...
- Manhattan Deputy DA Matthew Bogdanos has inspired a troll account. I recommend you don’t engage.
