Montana man sentenced to prison for illegally selling eagle feathers, parts
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – A federal judge in South Dakota has sentenced a Montana man to three years in prison for trafficking eagle feathers, wings and tails.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – A federal judge in South Dakota has sentenced a Montana man to three years in prison for trafficking eagle feathers, wings and tails.
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) – Three of nine people have pleaded guilty to federal charges in a burglary ring that authorities in northeastern Pennsylvania say stole artwork – including works by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock – as well as antique weapons, sports memorabilia and other items from museums and other institutions during two decades.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – The Supreme Court of the Netherlands on June 9 ordered that a Dutch museum’s trove of historical treasures from Crimea be sent to Ukraine, upholding a lower court ruling that the 300 artifacts are part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. The collection of archaeological objects, some more than 2,000 years old, was on display at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, sparking a dispute over the repatriation of the borrowed pieces.
SCRANTON, Pa. – Federal authorities announced charges against a ring of nine people for thefts of millions of dollars worth of paintings, sports memorabilia and other valuables including an Andy Warhol silkscreen, a Jackson Pollock painting and nine World Series rings belonging to the late Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.
MIAMI – Palm Beach art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz was sentenced on June 1 to 27 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for laundering money derived from his scheme to sell counterfeit artwork. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon also ordered Bouaziz to pay a $15,000 fine. The restitution hearing is set for August 16.
WASHINGTON (AP) — On May 18, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a photographer who claimed the late Andy Warhol had violated her copyright on a photograph of the singer Prince. “Lynn Goldsmith’s original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in an opinion joined by six of her colleagues.
FARGO, N.D. – A man has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of stealing a pair of ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, federal prosecutors in North Dakota said. The shoes were stolen in 2005 and recovered by a 2018 FBI sting operation, but no arrests were made at the time. Terry Martin was indicted May 16 with one count of theft of a major artwork, prosecutors announced on May 17. The indictment did not provide any further information about Martin and online records do not list an attorney for him.
BERLIN (AP) – A German court on May 16 convicted five men for the theft of 18th-century jewels worth more than 100 million euros (roughly $107,800 million) from a Dresden museum in 2019. They were sentenced to prison sentences of between four years and four months and six years and three months, German news agency dpa reported. One defendant was acquitted.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A former Los Angeles auctioneer has agreed to plead guilty in a cross-country art fraud scheme in which he created fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, federal prosecutors said April 11. The paintings ultimately wound up at the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida before they were seized by federal agents last year in a scandal that roiled the museum and led to its CEO’s departure after he threatened an art expert and told her to “shut up.”
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Federal authorities say dozens of artifacts stolen in the 1970s from museums in several states and dating back as far as the French and Indian War have been returned to the institutions.