Erik Davis is accused by the government of a ‘conspiracy’ to obstruct ICE – experts say it’s part of a pattern to criminalize lawful organizing and ruin activists’ lives

From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the gilded halls of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, a tale of stolen treasures and the battle to reclaim a nation’s soul. Amidst the chaos of...

"A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

The investigation reveals how crypto companies profited from crime while victims were financially ruined.

The pieces were looted in the 1960s from a temple in northeastern Thailand and later entered the museum’s collection through its founding donor.

Bradley Gordon, an American attorney who serves as a legal adviser to the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, called the documents a “missing roadmap.”

Painted figures haunt an empty building. A boy leaning on a pair of crutches. A father and son wandering a barren railroad track. A nuclear family at a picnic table. These poignant scenes were painted...

Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases.

France’s national railway carried Jews to death camps. Now it’s lobbying against Holocaust restitution.

New evidence about the Prakhon Chai Hoard reveals the origins of one of the world’s most notorious antiquities trafficking rings. How did Douglas Latchford—who for decades was a “one-man supply-and-de...

"A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

You can’t escape it: this is the same colonial museum we know, in a shiny new suit

The nearly 350-piece collection has been purchased by an Indian businessman in what is being described as a "public-private partnership" with the Indian government.

After global backlash to their planned sale at Sotheby's, the sacred Piprahwa Buddha relics have been repatriated to India after 127 years.

The United States has implemented import restrictions on Indian archaeological and ethnological materials, enforcing the US-India Cultural Property Ag

At Whale Hunting, we illuminate hidden worlds and expose closely-held secrets. Today, we’re pulling back the velvet curtain on one of the world’s most prestigious museums: the Met. Our latest investi...

"A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

by Marc Masurovsky From a business standpoint, art dealers do not run charities. They buy, sell, trade works and objects of art to make mone...

Thailand is actively pursuing the return of 16 valuable Thai artefacts currently held in US museums, strengthening efforts to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage.

"A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum is set to return four bronze statues from Thailand’s looted Prakhon Chai hoard.

"A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

Édouard Vuillard,  Enfants jouant à la table,  1922-1923,   Christie’s New York, 13 May 2025 by Claudia Hofstee A signed pastel drawing,  En...

The auctioneer Sotheby’s announced that it had “postponed” the sale of Buddha’s relics that were to go on sale in Hong Kong on the 7th of May, in response to being served a legal notice...

Scholarly Facilitation of the Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects: Providing a Veneer of Legitimacy

The Singaporean playwright talks to Arjun Sajip about dramatising the return of a fictional Buddhist statue from the British Museum to China