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Chasing Aphrodite

@chasingaphrodite.bsky.social

1.3K followers 570 following 9.8K posts

Researching the illicit antiquities trade for two decades as an investigative reporter, author, blogger, tweeter, investigator, founder @MuseumofLoot and now...skeeter? https://ChasingAphrodite.com/ https://MuseumofLoot.org/ https://AchillesResearch.org/

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Nov 14

Working on antiquities trafficking, provenance research, collecting ethics, repatriation issues?

I’m building a list here. Ping me if I missed you.

go.bsky.app/MHUgHyF

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 1d

The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist

As many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bigger forces at work?

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist

The long read: Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bi...

www.theguardian.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 4d

Trade based money laundering in the antiquities trade

MOLA @museumofloot.bsky.social · 4d

New Case: Statue of Dionysus, contributed by Emily Hamann

In 1996, this life-size Roman bronze statue of Dionysus was seized from a Swiss warehouse that belonged to Turkish trafficker Nevzat Telliagoglu after he was convicted in the UK of drug trafficking charges.

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Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

Andy Brouwer @andybrouwer.bsky.social · 6d

A Naga-Garuda Balustrade Terminal in the Battambang Museum. Carved in late 12th century it was removed from Banteay Chhmar temple to avoid it being stolen. #Cambodia

Naga-Garuda Balustrade from Banteay Chhmar, now at Battambang Museum. Late 12thC.

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 6d

Chasing Aphrodite was stolen by the AI monkeys.

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 7d

You can now search the Anthropic database for your books 📚 and then file a claim directly if your work was stolen: secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Submit a Claim

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 7d

Inside the Battle for The Smithsonian

Donald Trump’s unprecedented measures to take control of The Smithsonian Institution have rattled staffers, enraged artists, and even put the future of its vast collection in doubt.

www.vanityfair.com/news/story/i...

Inside the Battle for The Smithsonian

Donald Trump’s unprecedented measures to take control of The Smithsonian Institution have rattled staffers, enraged artists, and even put the future of its vast collection in doubt.

www.vanityfair.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 10d

I made all these points back in 2013 and nothing has changed.

chasingaphrodite.com/2013/08/01/o...

Optical Due Diligence: Art Loss Register Claims To Vet Ancient Art. Does it?

UPDATE 8/9/14: The Sunday Times has published another devastating report on the Art Loss Register’s business practices. ALR Founder Julian Radcliffe admits paying thieves to recover stolen ar…

chasingaphrodite.com

Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 10d

Quiet part out loud:

“It’s evidence at the time of purchase of the best level of due diligence,” ALR’s Olivia Whitting said. “If, later on, a claim is made on the piece, the collector can show that they did their due diligence, and the documentation provided passed our checks.”

Nope!

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 10d

“Optical due diligence” remains the coin of the realm in the art market, with Art Loss Register profiting off the illusion.

Looted objects are not registered as stolen, so they’re not in stolen art databases like ALR!

NYT should do better than to promote this myth

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/a...

Collecting Antiquities Is a Growing Trend. But It Can Be Tricky.

www.nytimes.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 11d

Here’s the research on those forgeries: d2f7x7uhr2xem7.cloudfront.net/sixteen_by_n...

d2f7x7uhr2xem7.cloudfront.net

Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 11d

Six years after admitting its 14 fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls were forgeries, the Museum of the Bible is borrowing the real deal from Israel

www.morningstar.com/news/pr-news...

The Dead Sea Scroll Exhibition with the Oldest Biblical Texts Arrives at Museum of the Bible in November 2025

www.morningstar.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 11d

Nine days after launching a virtual museum that documents crimes by the Assad regime against prisoners, activist and journalist Amer Matar was arrested and confined overnight by Syrian authorities.

www.icij.org/news/2025/09...

Syrian authorities arrest and briefly detain prominent activist as country’s president makes UN debut - ICIJ

Amer Matar, the Syria Prisons Museum co-director and a former political prisoner whose testimony helped secure the first international war crimes conviction against a Syrian official, was held after a...

www.icij.org

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 12d

youtu.be/0xw2STtzkDg?...

Sudan struggles to restore country's shattered cultural treasures | REUTERS

YouTube video by Reuters

youtu.be

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 12d

So far, about 4,000 antiquities have been counted missing in Sudan. 700 pieces disappeared from museums in the cities of Nyala and El GeneinaI, where the museum’s curator was killed when the building was shelled

www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Sudan preservationists struggle to restore country's shattered cultural treasures

The shattered remains of antique pottery and shards of ancient statues lie among broken glass and bullet casings at Sudan’s National Museum, not far from where the Blue and White Nile meet in the capital Khartoum.

www.reuters.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 21d

How millennia of history vanished in Sudan's war

Last spring, a group of foreigners were arrested in Sudan with antiquities in their possession. Another group in Egypt offered to return looted antiquities in exchange for money.

www.al-monitor.com/originals/20...

How millennia of history vanished in Sudan's war

In the scorched courtyard of Sudan's National Museum in Khartoum, a towering black granite statue of Kush Pharaoh Taharqa now stands alone, surrounded by shards of broken glass and shattered stone.Sin...

www.al-monitor.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · 21d

A Rush to Save Ancient Artifacts in Gaza Highlights All That Has Been Lost

A bombing delay enabled rescue of some objects, but archaeologists fear the wider loss of antiquities from the many cultures living there over thousands of years.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/w...

A Rush to Save Ancient Artifacts in Gaza Highlights All That Has Been Lost

www.nytimes.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Sep 7

Why New York can be a risky place for dealers and museums to hold [stolen] art

Could the Manhattan district attorney's seizures be putting people off sending [stolen] artworks to the city?

www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/04/w...

Comment | Why New York can be a risky place for dealers and museums to hold art

Could the Manhattan district attorney's seizures be putting people off sending artworks to the city?

www.theartnewspaper.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Sep 6

On If Objects Could Talk, the newest series from Getty Podcasts, artifacts from Getty's antiquities collection leave the museum vault and come alive to share their side of the story.

Coming September 8, 2025.

podcastingtoday.co.uk/getty-launch...

Getty launches first family podcast If Objects Could Talk

Getty is introducing its first-ever family podcast, If Objects Could Talk.

podcastingtoday.co.uk

Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

MOLA @museumofloot.bsky.social · Aug 26

Missing from the New York Times obit of the diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman, who died Saturday, is his role as a conduit for some of the most important examples of looted Classical art to have survived antiquity.

A thread...

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/b...

Maurice Tempelsman, Diamond Magnate and Jackie Onassis’s Companion, Dies at 95

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

MOLA @museumofloot.bsky.social · Aug 27

Ashraf Eldarir, an Egyptian doctor, became involved in the “more financially lucrative” trade of smuggling antiquities into the US

Eldarir pleaded guilty to four charges of smuggling and is due to be sentenced at a court in New York today.

www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

Jail looms for 'prodigious' Egyptian antiquities smuggler linked to British Museum | The National

Ashraf Eldarir gave up being doctor in Egypt to earn more selling stolen ancient artefacts in US

www.thenationalnews.com

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Aug 25

The last private owner of Sotheby’s was Alfred Taubman, a charismatic Midwestern mall developer, who bought the auction house in the early eighties and was later convicted of colluding with Christie’s to fix pricing and spent ten months in prison

Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

MOLA @museumofloot.bsky.social · Aug 24

New Case: Pandava.

This sandstone sculpture of Pandava, depicting a warrior from Hindu mythology, was stolen from the Prasat Chan temple within Cambodia's Koh Ker complex, likely in the 1970s under the Khmer Rouge.

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Aug 25

New Yorker: HOW A BILLIONAIRE OWNER BROUGHT TURMOIL AND TROUBLE TO SOTHEBY’S

Patrick Drahi made a fortune through debt-fuelled telecommunications companies. Now he’s bringing his methods to the art market.

apple.news/AXoxC9-sdSCy...

How a Billionaire Owner Brought Turmoil and Trouble to Sotheby’s — The New Yorker

Patrick Drahi made a fortune through debt-fuelled telecommunications companies. Now he’s bringing his methods to the art market.

apple.news

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Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 22

The identity documents of indigent people were purchased or stolen as part of an elaborate scheme to fraudulently circumvent a 50-year-old global ban on the rhino horn trade. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

How John Hume allegedly schemed to defy global rhino horn trade ban

The State alleges that Hume, in association with his five alleged co-conspirators, knew or ought to have known that their enterprise ‘uses or invests, directly or indirectly (Hume’s) rhino horns, othe...

www.dailymaverick.co.za

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Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

MOLA @museumofloot.bsky.social · Aug 17

New Case: Portrait head of Caracalla

The Manhattan DA seized this bronze portrait of the Roman emperor Caracalla from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2023 as part of a sweeping investigation of the looting of the ancient site of Bubon, Türkiye.

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Reposted by Chasing Aphrodite

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Aug 14

James Baldwin’s message was simple: we’re afraid of love, because we’re afraid of exposing our true selves. To manage that fear, we “other” the groups we don’t belong to in order to avoid a reckoning with ourselves.

The Lives and Loves of James Baldwin

An older generation dismissed him as passé; a newer one has recast him as a secular saint. But Baldwin’s true message remains more unsettling than either camp recognizes.

www.newyorker.com

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