PARIS (AP) – The former president of the Louvre museum has received preliminary charges for alleged antiquities trafficking during his tenure as head of the famous Paris museum. Police in the French capital charged Jean-Luc Martinez on May 25 with “complicity in organized fraud” and money laundering, according to the Paris prosecutors’ office.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Fine art isn’t just nice to look at – it’s also attractive to criminals trying to launder money, finance terrorism and trade illegal drugs and arms. And the Treasury Department wants art dealers and financiers to do something about that. The agency issued a 40-page report February 4 recommending that financial firms and art dealers set up an information-sharing database to track how sales of fine art are linked to bad actors who make anonymous purchases.