Serop Simonian, the alleged chief of an Egyptian antiquities trafficking ring, mysteriously left Paris for Hamburg throughout his jail sentence in January.
The now 83-year-old vendor is believed to be behind the sale of allegedly smuggled Egyptian antiquities to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre Abu Dhabi for a collective €60 million ($64 million).
In 2022, following a criminal investigation, a number of objects had been seized together with a gold sarcophagus and 5 different antiquities from the Met, in addition to the indictment of seven sellers, collectors, and curators resembling the former president of the Musée du Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez.
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French authorities issued a warrant for Simonian’s arrest, which prompted the prison investigation. He was charged with trafficking and laundering in September 2023 and was subsequently jailed in Paris.
Simonian’s lawyer Chloé Arnoux advised the Art Newspaper that he “suffers from well being issues and wishes the help of a walker, was authorised to depart Paris by a Justice of the Peace on 31 December, to return to his hometown. After 15 months of detention, the Justice of the Peace thought-about that he might be launched.”
She added, “Simonian was then positioned below European judicial management and should test in each month at a neighborhood police station. He was authorised to return to Hamburg, the place he’s in an assisted residing facility close to his household. However the French prosecutor appealed the choice and it was overturned two weeks later by the courtroom of attraction.”
The courtroom’s ruling, nonetheless, states “the chance of flight is important as Simonian handles a community and funds which might enable him to flee”, Libération reported.
Simonian has not responded to French summons to return to jail in Paris, authorized sources say. It stays unclear how authorities will proceed.
