Published on : 26/05/2022 – 12:01
A former president and director of the Louvre Museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, was indicted this Wednesday, May 25 in Paris for “ money laundering and complicity in organized fraud in an investigation into antiquities trafficking in the Near and Middle East. This is what we learned Thursday from a judicial source.
Jean-Luc Martinez had been placed in police custody on Monday at the premises of the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC), with two eminent French Egyptologists, according to a source familiar with the matter. The two specialists have been released without charges at this stage, added this source.
The former president and director of the museum was indicted for ” complicity in fraud in an organized gang and laundering by false facilitation of the origin of assets resulting from a crime or misdemeanor “, specified the judicial source.
According to the French weekly, The chained Duckwho announced the custody, investigators are trying to find out if Jean-Luc Martinez would have “ close your eyes “on false certificates of origin of five pieces of Egyptian antiquity, including a pink granite stele of Tutankhamun, acquired by the Louvre Abu Dhabi” for several tens of millions of euros ».
Hundreds of parts
Jean-Luc Martinez, patron of the Louvre from 2013 to the summer of 2021, is now ambassador for international cooperation in the field of heritage. A preliminary investigation into suspicions of trafficking in antiquities from unstable countries in the Near and Middle East was opened in July 2018 by the National Court in charge of the fight against organized crime (Junalco) of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
This traffic would concern hundreds of pieces and would involve several tens of millions of euros, according to sources close at the time. In this case, at least three other people are being prosecuted for ” organized gang scams, criminal conspiracy and organized gang money laundering ».
An expert in Mediterranean archeology and her husband were indicted in June 2020 and placed under judicial supervision. They are believed to have bleached » archaeological objects looted in several countries plagued by instability since the beginning of the 2010s and the emergence of the Arab Spring: Egypt, Libya, Yemen or Syria. A German-Lebanese gallery owner was also placed in pre-trial detention in March latest.
Another incriminating element is the testimony of an Egyptologist who claims to have warned the management of the Louvre that the origin of this stele of Tutankhamun was cloudy. The OCBC is seeking to determine the terms of acquisition by Louvre Abu Dhabi, via this gallery owner, of the five antiquities illegally taken out of Egypt, according to the Chained Duck.
(with AFP)
►Also read: “Antiquities trafficking”: an exhibition at the Louvre Museum