Louvre museum curator and scientific director of France museums involved in antiques traffic?

There should soon be more clarity surrounding the matter of objects of questionable provenance bought by the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which led to the 2022 indictment of both Jean-François Charnier, the former scientific director of the France Muséums agency, which was established to oversee the UAE museum project, and former Louvre president Jean-Luc Martinez. One of the major masterminds of the scandal, Serop Simonian, was extradited from Hamburg to France in mid-September. He was jailed after being charged with money laundering and fraud.

Robin Ulrich photo

This merchant, a German national who was born in Cairo in 1942, is the official manager of the numismatic business Dionysos Coins and Antiquities. Investigators from the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property claim that the eighty-year-old possesses no fewer than twenty-five thousand antique items that are kept in storage throughout Europe and the Middle East.

The 2017 sale of the priest Nedjemankh's sarcophagus, which the Metropolitan Museum in New York was forced to return to Cairo after an American police probe, was orchestrated by the Simonian family. It sold seven pieces with questionable provenance to the Louvre Abu Dhabi for fifty million euros between 2014 and 2018. A Lebanese-German businessman named Roben Dib, who represented the Simonians, handled all of these items before he was deported to France in March 2022 and charged with organized gang fraud.

Le Quotidien de l'art reports that Serop Simonian declares his innocence, claiming that these antiques were lawfully shipped to Germany in the 1970s from his siblings, who are antique merchants from Cairo. Despite our repeated attempts to reach him, Christophe Ingrain, his attorney, did not reply.

The Aboutaam brothers' role

Meanwhile, doubts are beginning to surround Jean-François Charnier, who plans to argue in cassation on Tuesday, November 14, that there is not enough substantial and convincing evidence to support his indictment. The archaeologist managed six of the seven acquisition files for pieces meant for the Louvre Abu Dhabi from 2013 to 2018, holding one of the most important positions in the process.

Le Monde has learned of inquiry details that indicate the police discovered, in a computer search, evidence of gifts coming from a notorious antiques dealer named Hicham Aboutaam. Aboutaam and his brother Ali co-founded the Swiss gallery Phoenix Ancient Art. Justice has long targeted the two brothers, who sell to the world's largest museums, most notably the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and exhibit at international fairs. Hicham Aboutaam was detained in the US in December 2003 as he tried to bring into the country an item that had been stolen from Iran.

As per the documentation, Hicham Aboutaam expressed his appreciation by purchasing Jean-François Charnier airline tickets for his family's 2015 trip to New York. In 2018, he offered the curator's parents and in-laws round-trip tickets from Paris to Abu Dhabi and then extended an invitation for a one-week family vacation in the Maldives. However, the curators' 2007 code of ethics clearly states that they cannot accept "any external moral or financial solicitation (gifts, invitations, benefits in kind, etc.)" from outside parties.

The dubious practice is nonetheless widely used. Curators' professional prospecting travels are frequently funded by fairs or dealers. The artists whose work they exhibit frequently offer gifts to museum administrators.

Hazard of amalgam

However, these additional details might cause the indictment of Jean-François Charnier for passive corruption to be reevaluated. Drawing a distinction between error of judgment and dishonesty, Corinne Hershkovitch defends, "We have to make a distinction, corruption must be linked to an offense, there is none there." "There is a moral failing, but it did not affect the way the objects were processed by the France Muséums agency, which follows higher standards than other museums." For his side, Jean-François Charnier states that after 2015, the Louvre Abu Dhabi did not purchase any items from Aboutaam.

The defense of Jean-Luc Martinez, who also begged on November 14 to have his indictment withdrawn, is indirectly embarrassed by these findings as he is afraid of the amalgamation. Mr. François Artuphel, the attorney for Jean-Luc Martinez, intends to make it clear that his client "did not receive any advantage from whatever nature it may be" and that "these elements do not concern Jean-Luc Martinez and do not call for comment from his defense." None of the searches turned up anything unusual in his bank account activity or a difference between his pay and level of living.

Seen in Le Monde,