- Robin Symes
Robin Symes is a former antiquities dealer who was sent to prison for two years on 21 January 2005 but released after only serving seven months of his prison time.
Called "London’s best-known and most successful dealer in antiquities" [Watson, Peter. [http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue15/watson.htm "The fall of Robin Symes."] "Culture Without Context" newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, Issue 15, Autumn 2004.] , Symes is also accused of playing a pivotal role in the illegal trade of looted antiquities, which is detailed in Peter Watson and
Cecilia Todeschini 's 2006 book "The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums". According to the accusations brought against Symes, he was the main dealer in Giacomo Medici's operation, selling looted antiquities fromRobert Hecht Jr. and Medici to many renowned Western museums. One of the main museums to be involved in the was theJ. Paul Getty Museum , whose curatorMarion True has since been indicted for illegal trafficking of antiquities. She had been a student of Robert Bothmer, curator of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Metropolitan acquired theEuphronios krater , which was returned to Italy in February 2006.The fall of Robin Symes
The downfall of Robin Symes started with a conflict with the family of his late partner Christo Michaelides, son and heir of the Papadimitriou shipping family. After Michaelides death, a conflict arose over the ownership of Michaelides' assets. Dimitri Papadimitriou spent millions to prove his legal claim to half of the Robin Symes Limited assets, a legal case Papadimitriou eventually won and which pushed Symes into bankruptcy, resulting in his conviction on 21 January 2005.
References
External links
* [http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/italytrial/ "The Trial in Rome" ~ Archaeology.org]
* [http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/publicaffairsbooks-cgi-bin/display?book=9781586484026 "The Medici Conspiracy, The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities, From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums"]
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