High Desert Man Charged with Unlawfully Importing Ancient Mosaic

justice.gov ^ | July 24, 2020 | DOJ

[Joe 6-pack]

As an insurance investigator with an art history degree, I'm often asked how my degree applies to my career as an investigator.

First, some of the most audacious thefts in criminal history revolve around arts and antiquities. Second because of the way the art market works, it is almost uniquely set up to facilitate money laundering and the international movement of diry money.

An example I like to give is a hypothetical 5", 12 lb. Ball of iron.

In and of itself, scrap metal value is about 4-5 bucks.

Throw a wooden base on it, sell it as a "cannonball paperweight," and you can probably get $20 for it.

Put a piece of paper next to it that verifies it is a cannonball recovered from the Gettysburg battlefield and you can probably get $100-200 for it.

Put convincing, authenticated paperwork with it that establishes it as the cannonball that took of General Sickles' leg at Gettysburg, and you're likely looking at 6 figures from a museum or seven figures from the right private collector. All for the sam cannonball.

Moreover, that $4-5 scrap metal and that million dollar provenance can be pretty easily transported across borders separately with minimal inspection or question, qnd paired up again at the destination.

What customs inspector would give a single tessar from a mosaic much thought?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Actually a high probability of it being stolen.

That quality of mosaic goes on the open market for far more then $12,000. Any museum would be glad to pay four or five times that for it. If you are talking private collector you are talking up to a million.

Yes, Floyd did commit armed robbery. That was not his first brush with the law. You need to look up his past. So, not a typo.

You should not lie to the government because it renders the social contract null. You have the right to be silent, but not the right to lie.

The founding fathers were in favor of both tariffs and punishment for perjury.

[Rurudyne]

The social contract as currently envisioned is a bad idea.

Perjury should only apply when an oath is specifically taken.

Screw the government and those who wish to expand it to cover all circumstances whatsoever.

[Red Badger]

It sounds really like a difference of opinion.

Something is worth only what someone else will give you for it..............

[Red Badger]

You are not suppose to evade ANY taxes.

Sincerely,

IRS, FBI, DHS................

[Hot Tabasco]

My brother-in-law is from Honduras. Years ago his family used to grow sugar cane and in the course of plowing their fields, they would occasionally unearth small caches of Mayan artifacts, usually small stone statues. Unfortunately they were usually destroyed by the plows......