No trial or jail for billionaire art thief

When billionaire hedge fund manager Michael H. Steinhardt was caught with millions of dollars in stolen antiquities, including an ancient marble bull’s head statue that had been looted from Lebanon, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. made him give them back.

Unlike 231 of the 291 defendants convicted of receiving stolen property in Vance’s jurisdiction, Steinhardt will not be subjected to incarceration for his crimes.

Steinhardt, one of the world’s largest ancient art collectors, surrendered 180 stolen antiquities valued at $70 million and received a first-of-its-kind lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities, following the resolution of a multi-year, multi-national investigation into his criminal conduct.

The seized pieces were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable provenance prior to appearing on the international art market, according to the Statement of Facts summarizing the investigation.

The billionaire avoided jail time unlike 291 defendants convicted of receiving stolen property, among which were 153—more than two-thirds—individuals classified as Black and Hispanic according to the Manhattan DA.

“For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe,” said Vance. “His pursuit of ‘new’ additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers, and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection.

Vance explained that letting Steinhardt avoid prison after he financed 12 criminal smuggling networks responsible for illegally digging up and spiriting away priceless artifacts, is really the best way to confront this kind of big-money crime.

“Even though Steinhardt’s decades-long indifference to the rights of peoples to their own sacred treasures is appalling, the interests of justice prior to indictment and trial favor a resolution that ensures that a substantial portion of the damage to world cultural heritage will be undone, once and for all,” said Vance. “Accordingly, this agreement guarantees that 180 pieces will be returned expeditiously to their rightful owners in 11 countries rather than be held as evidence for the years necessary to complete the grand-jury indictment, trial, potential conviction, and sentence.”

Vance claimed his resolution also enables officials to shield the identity of many witnesses, to protect the integrity of investigations in 11 other countries, and avoid “over-burdening” international law-enforcement authorities, witnesses, and jurors with a trial.

Vance surely knows about punishing members of the wealthy one percent in this country, where everyone is equal under the law, because he is one of them!

A few years ago, The Observer used the lower end of the revenue range from real estate, stocks and other sources in addition to their city salaries, using data from 2013 Conflict of Interest Board forms, to estimate various New York City elected officials’ salaries.

The Observer calculated Vance’s yearly earnings $1,360,000 including the DA’s city paycheck.

Vance’s father was secretary of the Army and State. He enjoyed a successful legal career before his 2009 election. In addition to his salary, Vance had income of at least $60,000 from a blind trust, and holds hundreds of thousands in mutual funds, business investments and retirement plans.

Vance’s wife’s father T. Murray McDonnell, was chairman of the Wall Street brokerage house McDonnell & Company from 1951 until 1970, when the Securities and Exchange Commission barred him from working as a stock dealer, but in 1973 he was able to join Allen & Company, where he served until his death as a vice president handling foreign business. Her grandfather was Thomas E. Murray, one of the most prolific inventors in history after Thomas Edison, and the holder of many electrical patents.

Vance considers it a victory that “Steinhardt will be subject to an unprecedented lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities.”

“Steinhardt viewed these precious artifacts as simple commodities – things to collect and own. He failed to respect that these treasures represent the heritage of cultures around the world from which these items were looted, often during times of strife and unrest,” said Homeland Security Investigations New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel. “The outstanding collaboration between the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations revealed the breadth of Steinhardt’s plundering and this collaborative effort has yielded the remarkable results announced today.”

According to documents filed in court, the criminal investigation into Steinhardt began in February 2017.

While investigating the Bull’s Head stolen from Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, the D.A.’s Office determined Steinhardt had purchased the multi-million-dollar statue then subsequently loaned it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Months after seizing the piece, the D.A.’s Office announced the formation of its Antiquities Trafficking Unit with the repatriation of the Bull’s Head and the Calf Bearer, a second multi-million-dollar marble statute seized from Steinhardt, to the Lebanese Republic in December 2017.

In the process of uncovering the Lebanese statues, the D.A.’s Office learned that Steinhardt possessed additional looted antiquities at his apartment and office, and, soon after, initiated a grand jury criminal investigation into his acquisition, possession, and sale of more than 1,000 antiquities since at least 1987.

As part of this inquiry into criminal conduct by Steinhardt, the D.A.’s Office executed 17 judicially-ordered search warrants and conducted joint investigations with law enforcement authorities in 11 countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Turkey.

Of Steinhardt’s acquisitions, the D.A.’s Office developed compelling evidence that 180 were stolen from their country of origin. In addition to their universal lack of provenance, the pieces exhibited numerous other evidentiary indicators of looting.

Prior to Steinhardt’s purchase, 171 of the 180 seized antiquities first surfaced in the possession of individuals who law-enforcement authorities later determined to be antiquities traffickers—some of whom have been convicted of antiquities trafficking; 101 first appeared dirty (or unrestored) in photographs; and 100 appeared covered in dirt or encrustations prior to Steinhardt’s purchase.

Many of the seized antiquities were trafficked following civil unrest or looting.

Among the pieces surrendered in this agreement:

The Stag’s Head Rhyton, depicting a finely wrought stag’s head in the form of a ceremonial vessel for libations, purchased from The Merrin Gallery for $2.6 million in November 1991.

The item, which dates to 400 B.C.E., first appeared without provenance on the international art market after rampant looting in Milas, Turkey.

In March 1993, Steinhardt loaned the Stag’s Head Rhyton to the Met, where it remained until the D.A.’s Office applied for and received a warrant to seize it. Today, the Stag’s Head Rhyton is valued at $3.5 million.

The Larnax, a small chest for human remains from the Greek Island of Crete that dates between 1400-1200 B.C.E., purchased from known antiquities trafficker Eugene Alexander via Seychelles-headquartered FAM Services for $575,000 in October 2016.

Alexander instructed Steinhardt to pay FAM Services via Satabank, a financial institution in Malta that the European Central Bank stripped of its license in 2020 for money laundering millions in criminal proceeds.

While complaining about a subpoena requesting provenance documentation for a different stolen antiquity, Steinhardt pointed to the Larnax and said to an investigator with A.T.U.: “You see this piece? There’s no provenance for it. If I see a piece and I like it, then I buy it.” Today, the Larnax is valued at $1 million.

The Ercolano Fresco purchased from convicted antiquities trafficker Robert Emmanuel Hecht and his antiquities restorer Harry Bürki with no prior provenance for $650,000 in November 1995. Depicting an infant Hercules strangling a snake sent by Hera to slay him, the Ercolano Fresco dates to 50 C.E. and was looted in 1995 from a Roman villa in the ruins of Herculaneum, located near modern Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

It first appeared on the international art market on November 10, 1995, when Hecht’s business partner wrote Steinhardt regarding a “crate being delivered to you soon” with the artifact inside. Today, the Ercolano Fresco is valued at $1 million.

The Gold Bowl looted from Nimrud, Iraq, and purchased from Svyatoslav Konkin with no prior provenance for $150,000 in July 2020. Beginning in 2015, objects from Nimrud were trafficked when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targeted cultural heritage from Nimrud, Hatra, and Khorsabad, particularly ancient objects made of gold or precious metal.

The Gold Bowl, which is crafted from gold with a scalloped flower design, first surfaced on the international art market in October 2019, when a Customs and Border Patrol officer notified the D.A.’s Office that Konkin was on a flight from Hong Kong to Newark, New Jersey, hand-carrying the Gold Bowl for Steinhardt. Today, the Gold Bowl is valued at $200,000.

Three Death Masks purchased from known antiquities trafficker GIL CHAYA with no provenance whatsoever for $400,000 in October 2007, less than a year after they surfaced on the international art market.

The Death Masks (circa 6000 to 7000 B.C.E.) were crafted from stone and originated in the foothills of the Judean mountains, most likely in the Shephelah in Israel.

They appear soil-encrusted and covered in dirt in photographs recovered by Israeli law-enforcement authorities. Today, the Death Masks are valued at $650,000.