George Lotfi was a rarity.
Ranking among New York’s more venerable dealers in antiquities, he was also a prolific whistle-blower — cooperating with the New York City district attorney’s office to rat out sellers-and-smugglers who peddled treasures that had been looted, faked or ginned up with phony provenance. He even created a document which showed law enforcers how smuggling operations work.
Turns out the 81-year-old really knew his stuff.
Earlier this month, the Criminal Court of the City of New York put out a warrant for the arrest of Lotfi. He is being charged with 24 counts of possession of stolen property, seized from a storage unit in Jersey City, NJ. The property in question: supposedly looted artifacts dating back more than 1,000 years and valued at millions of dollars.
Among the allegedly illicit items confiscated from Lofti when authorities closed in on him last year are a Syrian artifact known as “Iphigenia and Orestes Mosaic,” which depicts an episode from Greek mythology and has a value of $2.5 million; the so-called “animal mosaic,” allegedly looted from Syria, dating to between the fifth and sixth centuries, displaying a panther and birds, valued at $100,000; and the “church mosaic” with the names of church donors written in Greek letters and valued at $70,000.
The 24 items are each said to be worth between $20,000 and $2.5 million. Referencing a $12 million marble bull’s head, previously released by the Met due to its questionable provenance, the arrest...
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