Arrest Warrant Issued in New York for Rome Dealer

An arrest warrant has been issued by the Manhattan district attorney’s office for Edoardo Almagià, a high profile Princeton-educated antiquities dealer (Colin Moynihan, 'Investigators Say a High-Profile Dealer Trafficked 2,000 Looted Artifacts', New York Times Oct. 31, 2024).  Prosecutors in Manhattan obtained an arrest warrant on Thursday for the dealer that had previously sold and donated prized artefacts to important museums and collectors. He is accused in court papers of trafficking thousands of illicit artefacts valued at tens of millions of dollars. Edoardo Almagià (now based in Rome), has been charged with conspiracy, taking part in a scheme to defraud and possessing stolen property owned by Italy. It is expected that an Interpol red notice will be issued (international arrest alert that would allow authorities around the world to detain Mr. Almagià) and extradict him to the US. Mr. Almagià denies wrongdoing and suggested that efforts targeting him were "the work of overzealous investigators". “They’ve criminalized and destroyed the antiquities market,” he said in an interview with Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Mr. Almagià fled the United States in 2006 after Homeland Security agents and an officer of the Italian police searched his Upper East Side apartment, according to the warrant. He surrendered six items and made arrangements to return a seventh, according to court papers, but then left the country, hiding some antiquities and documents in a storage facility and putting others in a shipping container bound for Naples. Tipped off by the informant, the Italian authorities later seized that container, recovering dozens of antiquities and thousands of documents, the prosecutors wrote.

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