Chasing Aphrodite

Treasure hunter wanted as British Museum races to find lost gold An overstretched team are looking for a professional to help recover hundreds of missing items before they are destroyed or melted down

Times: The British Museum is looking for a "treasure hunter" to track down the hundreds of gems, cameos and gold fragments allegedly stolen from storerooms by former curator Peter Higgs. The BM has recovered just 654 of the estimated 1,500 items stolen.

www.thetimes.com/culture/art/...

The discourse around the Bayeux tapestry's "return" echoes repatriation discourses, in a way that reminds me of how pro-Brexit ideologues co-opted the language of (anti-British) independence movements.

Opinion | I Asked ChatGPT to Solve an 800-Year-Old Italian Mystery. What Happened Surprised Me.

“To contribute to a field of knowledge, you need to accurately survey the landscape, sniff out what’s fishy and demonstrate why it’s rotten. Large language models have trouble on all three counts.”

I Asked ChatGPT to Solve an 800-Year-Old Italian Mystery. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/o...

White House pushes Smithsonian to comply with review to receive federal funding | CNN Politics The Trump administration has signaled to the Smithsonian Institution that the White House could withhold federal funding from the museum organization if it does not comply with the administration’s un...

White House officials told the Smithsonian that federal funds are available only “for use in a manner consistent” with President Donald Trump’s executive order from March, which tasked aides with rooting out “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives”

www.cnn.com/2025/12/21/p...

(I’m watching Season one and disappointed by plot and character development. Wanted to like it but curse at the screen mostly)

Down Cemetery Road: Mick Herron's PI Series Renewed for Season 2 Apple TV greenlit a second season of Down Cemetery Road starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, adapted from Mick Herron's PI novels.

Season two of Down Cemetery Road adapts Mick Herron's The Last Voice You Hear, delving into black market antiquities and murder.

bleedingcool.com/tv/down-ceme...

BIG NEWS: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco returns to Cambodia 13 antiquities linked to the late indicted antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford by an investigation of Homeland Security Investigations and Cambodian authorities.

about.asianart.org/press/asian-...

Hundreds of items taken in high-value Bristol Museum archive raid More than 600 artefacts from the museum's British Empire and Commonwealth collection are taken.

BBC: More than 600 artefacts of significant cultural value have been stolen from Bristol Museum's archive in a high-value raid, police said.

Thieves took military memorabilia, jewellery, natural history pieces and carved ivory, bronze and silver figurines on Sept 25.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Pope: Cultural diplomacy can build bridges and overcome prejudices - Vatican News Marking the 100th anniversary of the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology, Pope Leo XIV invites students and faculty to engage in cultural ...

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology to build bridges and overcome prejudices by taking part in cultural diplomacy.

The Pope also published an Apostolic Letter "On the Importance of Archaeology".

www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Russia Warns Poland Over Arrest of a Researcher Wanted by Ukraine

Poland arrested archaeologist Alexander Butyagin of Russia’s Hermitage Museum, who oversees research on a Greek site on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Kyiv considers any antiquities taken from the site to be stolen.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/w...

Christie’s withdraws rare ‘first calculator’ from auction after French court halts export Move comes after French scientists issued urgent appeal to prevent La Pascaline from leaving the country A rare example of the first functioning calculating machine in history looks likely to stay in France after Christie’s withdrew it from auction pending a definitive ruling from a Paris court on whether or not it can be exported. La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642, when he was just 19, and billed as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”, had been expected to fetch more than €2m (£1.8m). Continue reading...

Christie’s withdraws rare ‘first calculator’ from auction after French court halts export

Sound familiar?

www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

Pope Leo XIV returns 62 Indigenous artifacts to the Canadian bishops - Rome Reports 62 items from the ethnological collections of the Vatican Museums will return to their place of origin, Canada.

"The bishops will now hand over these items to national Indigenous organizations, who will be responsible for returning them to their communities of origin."

www.romereports.com/en/2025/11/1...

How Sotheby’s Turned a Museum Into an Auction House The auction house makes itself at home in the landmark Breuer building.

Sotheby’s has coped with slower sales by making dramatic moves, including cutting a deal with an Abu Dhabi wealth fund for a nearly $1 billion infusion and moving its New York flagship to the Breuer on a chic Madison Avenue block near the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

The IDF used a Scottish museum’s 3D models in propaganda videos It’s a quaint museum in a coastal town whose aim is to educate Scotland about its rich maritime heritage. Housed within an A-listed Victorian building in Irvine, the Scottish Maritime Museum is a popu...

An investigation by The Ferret found that Israeli Defence Force propaganda videos reused 3D models from Scotland’s Irvine Maritime Museum, turning a boat-building workshop into scenes of Hamas tunnels and Iranian bunkers.

www.theferret.scot/idf-scottish...

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What impact did this handful of specialized HSI agents have in recent years?

Working with Manhattan DA's ATU, they helped convict 18 antiquities traffickers, recovered approximately 6,100 antiquities valued at $480 million, and returned approximately 5,770 of them to 32 countries, with more daily.

The U.S. was a leader in cultural heritage investigations. Now those agents are working immigration enforcement. Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases.

Denver Post confirms what we’ve been hearing: nearly all federal HSI agents with expertise on cultural property crimes have been reassigned to immigration duties in recent months.

Major loss of law enforcement capabilities in the world’s largest art market.

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/u...

Hegseth in Vietnam to strengthen defense ties and reassure a cautious partner | iNFOnews.ca HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in Vietnam on Sunday, reaffirming a partnership built on healing the scars of the Vietnam War in

Soft power: At the end of his talks with Vietnamese Defense Minister, Hegseth handed over a leather box, a belt and a small knife — wartime artifacts once taken by U.S. soldiers.

Such returns have become part of broader reconciliation efforts between the two countries

infonews.ca/news/7409764...

Opinion | Billions in treasure lie on the seafloor. Finders keepers? As treasure hunters pursue gold and silver, they both aid and compete with archeologists.

Billions in treasure lie on the seafloor. Finders keepers?

As treasure hunters pursue gold and silver, they both aid and compete with archaeologists.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

A head, a body, and two antiquities dealers...

Have you ever come across this Gudea statue? It's in the Louvre Abu Dhabi now, but until last year it had been in the Louvre Paris since 1953. HOW did get there though?

Let me tell you the story 🕵️‍♀️🔎👇
www.academia.edu/144706747/Ib...

'A real violation.' More than 1,000 artifacts stolen from California museum in brazen heist Items stolen from the Oakland Museum of California included Native American baskets, jewelry, laptops, historic photographs and intricately carved ivory tusks.

A thief or crew of thieves recently carried out one of the largest art heists in California history, breaking into a storage facility for the Oakland Museum of California under the cover of darkness and making off with more than 1,000 precious artifacts.

www.latimes.com/california/s...

LACMA employees unionize as museum works to open $720-million new building Employees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced they are forming a union. The effort comes six months before the opening its new $720-million David Geffen Galleries and just days before it...

LACMA workers unionize “Many employees are struggling with wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living in the sixth-most expensive city in the world,” workers wrote in a letter addressed to the museum’s executive team and the board of trustees.”

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Learn more about South Australia's new university for the future.

🌟The Wildlife Crime Research Hub at the soon-to-be Adelaide University is hiring! 🌟

If this sounds like you or someone you know, please apply or share within your networks! Adelaide is a lovely city and you'll get to see plenty of 🦘🐨🦜!

careers.adelaide.edu.au/cw/en/job/51...

New Case: Persephone of Cyrene, contributed by Julia Granato

This ornate marble sculpture of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, was looted from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cyrene (Cyrenaica) in Shahhat, Libya during the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

Museum’s Treasures to Be Sold as Founder Faces $50 Million Legal Bill

NYT: Museum’s Treasures to Be Sold as Founder Faces $50 Million Legal Bill

Masterpieces of Asian art held by the Okada Museum of Art in Japan are being auctioned by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong to settle a $50 million legal bill by the museum’s “Pachinko King” founder.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/a...

Louvre museum security ‘outdated and inadequate’ at time of heist — The Times and The Sunday Times The Louvre’s security systems were rated as outdated and inadequate by an official report written before the theft of crown jewels from the museum on Sunday morning. The failings laid bare in the repo...

Louvre museum security was outdated and inadequate at time of heist

Nearly two-thirds of rooms are without cameras in some galleries

The Louvre has ample funds, which could have been used for urgently needed improvements of security equipment, govt report found

apple.news/ANJ19C0gNTpe...

Louvre Closed After Brazen Daylight Robbery

Breaking: Thieves broke into the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon, which houses the French crown jewels.

They targeted two display cases and fled on motor scooters within seven minutes, taking jewelry that had “patrimonial” and “historical” value that made it “priceless.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/w...

A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian’s Vault

A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian’s Vault…while its author is trying to sell it at auction

“the auction room is a strange place.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/s...