Is it the responsibility of a museum curator to investigate a work he is about to acquire? Does he really have the skills to detect traffic? And, if so, how far should he investigate? These questions, at the heart of the Louvre Abu Dhabi affair, have met with a new echo since the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, on February 3, to confirm the indictment of the former president of the Louvre, Jean- Luc Martinez, and his former right-hand man, Jean-François Charnier.
Seven antiques of dubious provenance
In November, the defenders of the latter had argued the absence of“serious and consistent clues” against their clients. In the process, the Advocate General pleaded in this direction and requested the cancellation of their indictments, eight in number in this case, for reasons ranging from fraud in an organized gang to money laundering, including concealment The Court of Appeal finally decided otherwise.
In question, the purchase of seven Egyptian antiquities of dubious provenance, for the sum of 50 million euros, by the Emirates Museum, between 2014 and 2018. Justice suspects Jean-Luc Martinez and Jean-François Charnier of having closed their eyes to their origin. At the time, they advised the Louvre Abu Dhabi for its acquisitions via the France Museums agency.
Ingenuity of traffickers
“It is not because they did not see that the stamp was false that they participated in the traffic”, argues Corinne Hershkovitch, Jean-François Charnier’s lawyer. A way of underlining the ingenuity of the traffickers to constitute the false certificates which accompany the looted works. According to several specialists, expertise beyond that of curators is necessary to decipher them. Nevertheless, can’t questions about the documents be asked?
As soon as he received the information contained in the certificate of the stele of Tutankhamun, one of the seven antiquities in question, the Egyptologist Marc Gabolde had doubts about its origin. It was late 2018, the stele had already been acquired by the Emirates Museum. In winter 2019, however, Marc Gabolde alerted Jean-Luc Martinez during a meeting with the director of the Louvre’s Egyptian antiquities department, Vincent Rondot, and the director of the Egyptology journal, Olivier Perdu. The Egyptologist, who was then preparing an article on the stele, will be interviewed by the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) in June 2019.
Vigilance against antiquities trafficking
It is up to the courts to establish what the curators could really know at the time of the acquisitions. Still, the decision of the Court of Appeal comes in a context of vigilance around the trafficking of antiquities. “Buyers can no longer do as before and say to themselves ‘I don’t have to ask myself questions about the origin of the property once I have acquired it'”, explained the head of the OCBC, Colonel Hubert Percie du Sert, to The cross. In this perspective, the maintenance of the indictments of Jean-Luc Martinez and Jean-François Charnier sends a strong signal on the risks taken when buying an antique by a museum. Their lawyers have announced their intention to appeal in cassation.