The £2m ‘smuggled treasure passed off as a garden statue’
Judge goes on day trip to the British Museum to see it for himself
A JUDGE took a day out of court yesterday to visit the British Museum.
But it wasn’t for an Easter holiday jolly around the exhibits. It was to help him rule in the case of an ancient statue which is said to have be smuggled out of war-torn Libya.
The trial centres on a businessman who claimed in paper work that the treasure was a statue for home decoration.
Experts, however say the Greek marble figure – which is thought to depict Persephone, goddess of the underworld – was looted from a world heritage site.
While the man who had it delivered to a warehouse in West London claimed it was about 100 years old and worth around £75,000, they say it is worth £2million and dates from the third to first centuries BC. They claim it was intended for the lucrative private market in classical antiquities.
Yesterday District Judge John Zani – accompanied by a gaggle of barristers and solicitors – went to inspect the statue at the British Museum, where it is being safeguarded in a basement till the conclusion of the case.
Although the press were barred from the viewing, a video of it was later played in court which showed the judge circling the statue as marks were pointed out to him. He was told stains and other evidence meant it was ‘definitely’ excavated illegally from the ancient Greek colony of Cyrene – once known as the Athens of Africa.
It is said to have been smuggled out of Libya via Dubai in 2011 before being discovered by UK customs officials two years later.
Libya has been plagued by loot- ing and cultural vandalism since the fall of Colonel Gaddaffi in 2011, with the resulting power vacuum effectively ending the state-sponsored preservation of the country’s multiple Greek and Roman sites.
The sculpture is said to have originally served as a grave marker and displays unusual iconography including snake-like bracelets and a doll- type figurine. Jordanian national Riad Al Qassas – who is not in court – is accused of falsifying paperwork after he told customs that the sculpture came from Turkey.
Dr Peter Higgs, curator of Greek sculpture at the museum, told the judge the statue was in ‘the top ten’ of its class. He said: ‘I believe the statue was definitely made in Libya, in Cyrenaica’, adding it was extremely rare. He added that his valuation of £2million had been made on 2011 prices, but said there were no directly comparable examples from auction house records.
Andrew Bird, for HMRC, told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that academics had decided ‘on the balance of probabilities, this statue had been unlawfully excavated from a UNESCO world heritage site’.
He said documents suggested Al Qassas had only a marginal role in the export, placing the blame with Hassan Fazeli, a Dubai businessman who has claimed the sculpture has belonged to his family collection since 1977. Ben Watson, who represents Al Qassas, indicated his client would be happy to hand over the sculpture to Tripoli if it was shown to originate from there.
Al Qassas denies knowingly or recklessly delivering a false document to HMRC. The case continues.
‘Top ten of its class’