Well, that was quick: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today that it has recovered seven of the eight ancient Egyptian artifacts that were stolen from the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam in the middle of the afternoon on July 29, 2007. The Art Loss Register found them at a Manhattan auction house when it perused sale-catalogue galleys circulated to ALR (the usual practice). It called Customs, which had been asked by the Dutch police to help.
One earthenware piece, Shabti of Ptah-Irdisu, 1300-1200 BCE, picture at right, is still missing.
When I called Christopher A. Marinello, ALR's executive director, he declined to name the auction house, but he said that it was one of the big two -- Christie's and Sotheby's. He called the case a "textbook" example of what should happen in art thefts because everyone -- Customs, ALR, the Dutch police, the auction house and the consigner -- cooperated.
ARTINFO
Thanks to considerable help from the Art Loss Register (ALR) of New York, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has recovered seven of the eight ancient Egyptian artifacts that were stolen in 2007 from the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam.
The ALR, an organization that maintains a database of stolen works of art, discovered the artifacts at an unidentified Manhattan auction house (allegedly one of the biggies) and then called Customs, which had been asked by the Dutch police to help. The auction house then turned the items over to the ALR and the immigration and customs agency. Of the eight items stolen, seven have been recovered. The eighth is an earthenware Shabti figure covered in hieroglyphic markings. The ALR declined to give the value the items and said the auction catalogue did not yet carry estimates.
Also on Suite101 (Stan Parchin) and Art Daily with photograph.
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