Crime

California police officer took bribes from Colombian art dealer for years in exchange for immigration help

A former police officer in California has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes over the course of seven years from an unnamed Colombian gallerist

NFTnews

Former OpenSea employee sentenced to three months in prison in first-ever NFT insider-trading case

Nathaniel Chastain's landmark case has come to a close, setting a new precedent in the realm of digital assets

Crime news

Leon Black faces questions from US Senate Finance Committee over Jeffrey Epstein and his $1bn art collection

The committee chairperson has asked for more details by 1 September about the $158m Black allegedly paid Epstein over the years

'Knife attack' leads to evacuation of the British Museum in London

Police confirm a man was stabbed close to the entrance on Tuesday morning

Crime news

Swiss court sentences former museum cashier for embezzling more than $1m

The 54-year-old woman used ticket-sale tricks at the Fondation Beyeler near Basel to fund luxury cars and holidays

Suspects arrested in theft of gold coins from German museum

The trove stolen from the Kelten Römer Museum near Munich was the biggest Celtic gold find of the 20th century

Crime news

San Francisco gallerist filmed hosing down unhoused woman strikes deal to have battery charges dismissed

Collier Gwin, who was facing up to six months in prison if his case had gone to trial, will complete 35 hours of volunteer work

Claude Lévêque charged with rape and sexual assault of minors

The French neon artist was previously under investigation for allegations dating back to the 1980s

California man on trial for allegedly importing Roman mosaic looted during Syrian civil war to US

Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi is accused of misrepresenting the true value of a mosaic that was looted from Syria in 2015

Italy to open new mafia museum—complete with smells and sounds

The first site in Palermo is scheduled to open this spring

Antiquities trafficking investigator appointed president of Harvard Law Review—a position once held by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Barack Obama

Apsara Iyer says looting of Indian temples was a "wake-up call" to understanding how cultural heritage and crime intersect

‘Glad to see they are scared’: Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova added to Russia’s wanted list for criminals

A performance in which she burns an effigy of Vladimir Putin, and an NFT of a vagina-shaped Virgin Mary are thought to be behind new charges

Crime news

Art collector Myriam Ullens killed outside her home in Belgium, allegedly by her stepson

Ullens was an important collector of contemporary art and, with her husband Guy, opened the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing

Heritageanalysis

Art damaged in Brazil's revolt could become part of a memorial

Attack by far-right supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro has left some works of art beyond repair

Crime news

Ukrainian art dealer found guilty of stealing £1.3m Paul Signac from French museum

Vadym Huzhva handed a five-year sentence for 2018 theft and for stealing four other paintings in France, including a Renoir

Antiquities dealer Ali Aboutaam given 18-month suspended sentence by Geneva court

Decision brings the six-year investigation into the provenance of 15,000 antiquities from Phoenix Ancient Art to an end, with only a handful found to lack proper documentation

Crime news

Photography curator accused of attempted child molestation pleads not guilty

Efrem Zelony-Mindell was arrested in December by FBI agents in an undercover sting operation

Art crime specialist honoured by New Zealand for services to field

Penelope Jackson is the author of a book that considers how illicit activity differs when undertaken by women

Crime news

Moscow-based architect, who built ‘Putin’s Palace’, refuses to return to Italy to face trial

Italian Lanfranco Cirillo—whose 150-strong art collection was seized last year—will be tried in absentia by an Italian court next month for tax and money laundering crimes

Crime news

Cold case murder victim identified as Russian art dealer Aleksandr Levin

Torso was found in Amsterdam river in 2013, but DNA testing was only carried out in 2021

MoMAnews

Man who stabbed two MoMA employees last year charged with attempted murder and assault

He was arrested in Philadelphia in March 2022 after evading authorities for three days following the violent attack at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Banksynews

Ringleader of group who attempted to steal Banksy mural in Ukraine could face 12 years in prison

The suspect has not been identified by police, but is likely to be an environmental activist who told press that he intended to auction the work in support of the Ukrainian army

Italian police widen fraud investigation after seizing Rubens painting from Genoa exhibition

The Carabinieri accuse four people of downgrading and illegally exporting the Old Master work, which has now been returned to the show in the Palazzo Ducale

Crime news

Following his arrest in Italy, Old Master forgery suspect Giuliano Ruffini is turned over to French authorities

After seven years of investigations, Ruffini has been handed over to French authorities, likely setting the stage for a trial in Paris

Crime news

Police recover bulk of objects stolen in audacious £100m art heist from Dresden museum

Announcement was made during the trial of six men which began in January and is due to resume this week

Crime news

Russian arms dealer and artist Viktor Bout returns to Moscow via prisoner swap with US basketball player Brittney Griner

The man known as The Merchant of Death was exchanged for the American athlete, who was arrested for possessing cannabis oil at a Moscow airport in February

Paris gallerists—found guilty of selling Picasso works stolen by handyman—receive suspended jail sentences

Belle et Belle gallery has now been dissolved, closing the chapter on a decade-long criminal investigation

Crime news

Suspected Old Master forger Giuliano Ruffini—wanted by French police—cannot be found

The French dealer, who is under investigation for selling a series of allegedly forged paintings, has had a warrant out for his arrest since 2019