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museumofloot.bsky.social
Museum of Looted Antiquities is a virtual gallery that collects, displays and studies looted antiquities that have been repatriated since 1950 – and the trafficking networks behind them. MuseumOfLoot.org
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Case of the Day: The J Paul Getty Museum returned this painted marble lekanis (ceremonial basin) to Italy in 2007, one of several high profile objects the museum had purchased from collector Maurice Tempelsman. mola.omeka.net/items/show/1...

submitted 3 hours ago • 1 comment

www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2025/05/12/a... @counteringcrime.bsky.social @museumofloot.bsky.social

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Case of the Day: The ornate and highly significant early Buddhist sculpture, Footsteps of the Buddha (Buddhapada) was smuggled out of Pakistan's Swat Valley in 1982. (1/4)

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Out now! A collaborative volume that explores provenance, pedagogy, participatory programming and ethics for managing ancient Mediterranean collections in this region by #museum experts and researchers. 🏺📜🖼🏛 www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Lisa Duffy-Zeballos, one of our new contributing editors, is helping to address the need for more provenance research in the art market with a seven-class online course called Introduction to Provenance Research observer.com/2025/05/ifar...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05... @museumofloot.bsky.social

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Another failure of TEFAF screening. Kudos to @sauterne.bsky.social and Vijay Kumar for their vigilance. The idol was scheduled for auction at TEFAF Maastricht in March. It has since been nixed and secured for return to India. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai...

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Case of the Day: Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art imported of this ornate silver rhyton in 2000 under a false provenance, claiming Syria as country of origin instead of Iran, which was under sanctions at the time mola.omeka.net/items/show/1...

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

India tries to halt auction of Piprahwa gems found with Buddha’s remains, which it says “constitute inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

submitted 9 days ago • 3 comments

Based on provenance research into the ancestral remains, it is believed that Gordon Augustus Thomson, who travelled from Belfast to Hawaiʻi Island in 1840, had removed iwi kūpuna from burial caves and donated them to the Belfast museum in 1857. www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

The partnership between Smithsonian’s Asian Art museum and the Cambodian ministry aims to raise global awareness of Cambodia’s cultural heritage, especially that of the repatriated objects of Koh Ker, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. asia.si.edu/about/press/...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

#MayThe4thBeWithYou

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

In a powerful move that echoes growing global demands for the return of looted cultural heritage, the remote Belizean village of San Benito Poite has formally petitioned the British Museum to repatriate artifacts taken from the ancient Maya city of Pusilha lovefm.com/san-benito-p...

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Check out this new @smarthistory.bsky.social video about provenance using the Getty Provenance Index www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZWR...

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

News: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is preparing to return to Thailand four significant bronze sculptures, part of the Prasat Phanom Rung group from Buriram province. www.nationthailand.com/life/art-cul...

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Case of the Day: This c. 10th century sandstone statue of the monkey god Hanuman was returned to Cambodia's Koh Ker temple complex in 2015, after the discovery of an in situ pedestal confirmed that it had been looted in 1968. (1/2) mola.omeka.net/items/show/1017

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

“Rather than accept the findings of provenance research and the investigative conclusions regarding the Nazi-era seizure, the Chicago Art Institute opted to challenge the jurisdiction of the Manhattan DA to initiate a criminal proceeding.” It lost. art-crime.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-la...

submitted 18 days ago • 2 comments

Sotheby's is about to auction off remains of the Buddha taken by colonial officials from India in 1898. "For the Buddhists who deposited them-as for Buddhists today-the gems, & his bone & ash, all belong to the Buddha & shouldn’t just be sold to the highest bidder." religionnews.com/2025/04/22/a...

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Manet thanked Thailand for handing over 20 antiquities seized from criminals. - Khmer Times www.khmertimeskh.com/501673808/vi...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Case of the Day: The Stele of Rishabhanata was seized before auction at Christie's New York in March 2016, together with Revanta and his Entourage. Both seizures resulted from evidence found during searches of dealer Subhash Kapoor's warehouses in 2012. mola.omeka.net/items/show/1... (1/3)

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

📘 We're using Averting the Digital Dark Age by @ianmilligan1 as the backdrop for a live panel on the importance of Canadian web preservation. bit.ly/3Rp8eBY Join us in YVR on May 28 for a conversation on digital memory, archives, and how we keep the web from disappearing.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Statue stolen decades ago in Libya has been found in the Cleveland Museum The 22-inch Roman Egyptian statue was in the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) for more than three decades before it was identified. It is now being returned to Libya youtu.be/cfPuC8ChVIQ?...

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

Manhattan DA recovered a 13-page manuscript, valued at nearly $20,000, that was stolen from the National Archive of Paraguay over a decade ago. It surfaced at an auction house in Manhattan in 2013, where it was sold to a NYC-based rare book dealer. manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-an...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Case of the Day: This panel of Revanta and his Entourage, together with the Stele of Rishabhanata, were both seized from Christie's during its 'Asia Week' auctions in NYC in March, 2016. (1/3) mola.omeka.net/items/show/1015

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

BIG: Qatari royal Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani won his lawsuit against Phoenix Ancient Art, which sourced items for his Al Thani Collection, over the false provenance of £4.1 million of ancient artefacts www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

Russians loot 1.7 million Ukrainian cultural heritage items from occupied territories Russian officials are now selling Ukraine’s national treasures on illegal markets, marking a shift from when looted artifacts were typically displayed in Russian museums. euromaidanpress.com/2025/04/13/r...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025... @museumofloot.bsky.social

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

The Kallos Gallery in Mayfair, London, has removed a black-figure amphora – a jar with two handles and a narrow neck made around 550BC – from sale after Dr Christos Tsirogiannis linked it to the archives of trafficker Giacomo Medici www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

Case of the Day: Duen Fubara This memorial screen (also known as Duen Fubara or the Kalabari Memorial Screen) was repatriated to Nigeria by Boston's MFA in 2014, along with eight other items. Internal MFA investigations began to raise questions about these item's ownership histories. (1/3)

submitted 33 days ago • 1 comment