Five people suspected of trafficking in antiques arrested in Paris

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In Paris, five people suspected of participating in an antique trafficking network in the Near and Middle East were placed in police custody on Monday. Works of art come from risk areas before being sold on the French market. This traffic, estimated at several tens of millions of euros, has been monitored for several years.

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Investigators from the Central Office to Combat Trafficking in Cultural Property, the OCBC, opened the file in 2018. Hundreds of antiques sold by Pierre Bergé were actually looted in countries where instability allowed traffickers to steal these works.

These goods from Egypt, Libya, Yemen and even Syria were transported to France to be resold. Among the five people arrested on Monday, we find a director and an expert from the auction house Pierre Bergé who would have hidden the origin of the goods in order to resell them on French territory.

►Also read: Plundered treasures of Libya

Three other people, including a large Parisian art dealer, also found themselves in police custody. The investigators managed to find intermediaries and reconstruct the routes of some of these works.

This file led to the opening of a judicial investigation in February for concealment of theft in an organized gang, association of criminals, forgery and use of forgery. Crimes which could lead to sentences ranging from 3 to 10 years in prison.

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