Referencing a $12 million marble bull’s head, previously released by the Met due to its questionable provenance, the arrest warrant describes Lotfi as “the first documented possessor” of the rarity. The 24 items are each said to be worth between $20,000 and $2.5 million. In 2019 George Lotfi exposed an Egyptian coffin at the Met as having a faked provenance. The property in question: supposedly looted artifacts dating back more than 1,000 years and valued at millions of dollars.Īmong 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. He is being charged with 24 counts of possession of stolen property, seized from a storage unit in Jersey City, NJ. Turns out the 81-year-old really knew his stuff.Įarlier this month, the Criminal Court of the City of New York put out a warrant for the arrest of Lotfi. He even created a document which showed law enforcers how smuggling operations work. 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.

Clz music collector coupon code