Back in 2008 I noted a raid on an antiquities dealer in Barcelona, Spain. This revealed a substantial number of archaeological objects apparently looted from Italy.
Now Barcelona is in the news again. It appears that an Egyptian D21 painted coffin of Imesy will be returned to Egypt. Reports in the Spanish press map its route from its acquisition, apparently in Egypt, by a Spanish private collector by name of Miguel Angel BuendÃa during the 1970s ("Egipto recuperará en marzo un sarcófago faraónico, incautado en Estados Unidos", El PaÃs February 22, 2010). [I am grateful to a reader of LM for this report.]
The coffin was reportedly seized by US Customs at Miami, Florida in October 2008. It appears that the object lacked the appropriate documentation to demonstrate its collecting history (or "provenance"). It had apparently been consigned by a Barcelona gallery, "ArqueologÃa Clásica" (proprietor Félix Cervera), passed through Ireland, and arrived in the US …
Now Barcelona is in the news again. It appears that an Egyptian D21 painted coffin of Imesy will be returned to Egypt. Reports in the Spanish press map its route from its acquisition, apparently in Egypt, by a Spanish private collector by name of Miguel Angel BuendÃa during the 1970s ("Egipto recuperará en marzo un sarcófago faraónico, incautado en Estados Unidos", El PaÃs February 22, 2010). [I am grateful to a reader of LM for this report.]
The coffin was reportedly seized by US Customs at Miami, Florida in October 2008. It appears that the object lacked the appropriate documentation to demonstrate its collecting history (or "provenance"). It had apparently been consigned by a Barcelona gallery, "ArqueologÃa Clásica" (proprietor Félix Cervera), passed through Ireland, and arrived in the US …