Unesco warns of new scam system for African works of art

Text by: RFI Follow

A new form of scam concerning African works of art is denounced by Unesco which calls for vigilance after several reports. Fraudsters use the name of Unesco to convince of the authenticity of the works offered for sale. The fraud has been going on for two years and has killed around twenty victims, the majority of whom are French, with ties to Africa. The fraudsters pocketed more than a million euros. Unesco warns against this new scam system.

Publicity

Imagination is the raw material on which this scam is based. For Cédric Bourgeois, director of the office of investigations at Unesco, the operational mode is always the same. Each time the target is contacted on social networks, they are offered African art objects, often statuettes. To earn his trust, we often give the name of the head of a village in Cameroon or Mali.

False photos are then sent accompanied by a falsified certificate of authenticity which bears the name and logo or stamp of Unesco: on the one hand to gain the confidence of the target, on the other to indicate that the designated cultural items are transportable. Fraudsters sometimes usurp the identity of real officials of the institution in Africa, this was the case in Cameroon.

As for the scenario, it varies slightly depending on what the victim wants to hear. It is after the money is sent that buyers discover the scam. Not only do they receive nothing, but the coins mentioned have no real value and sell for just a few euros.

The amount of the damage is estimated at more than a million euros, but this is only the visible part of this scam, because the victims do not all speak, says Unesco. This scam is in full expansion and since it works, it attracts more and more fraudsters.

Unesco Deputy Director of Culture Ernesto Ottone Ramirez occasionally recalls that illicit trafficking in cultural property is "  a lucrative global scourge linked to other channels of organized crime including the financing of terrorism  ". Unesco calls on all persons solicited by this type of offer to pay the greatest attention to it and to report to the competent judicial authorities.

In the past, it was most often bogus scholarship or recruiting programs that were reported to us, but for two years, and with recent acceleration, these are scams of African works of art that seem to thrive.

Cédric Bourgeois, director of the Unesco investigations office

Houda Ibrahim

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Unesco
• UN
• Arts
• Crime