Saturday, November 23, 2013

Cornell returning 10,000 tablets to Iraq -- with no penalty for the donor, of course

According to this report in the Art Newspaper, Rosen, who bought looted Iraqi antiquities and then donated them to Cornell, was a co-owner of a gallery with Robert Hecht, who was the key middleman buying looted Italian antiquities and then sold them to the Met. Those were the days.

Also notable that Rosen got an $800K tax benefit for donating. Will the IRS demand that money (plus penalties)? That would send a signal to collectors that if they want to buy dodgy antiquities they should not expect to be rewarded for doing so, at least.

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