Antiquities Dealer Georges Lofti, an Authority on Art Smuggling, Faces Arrest Over Stolen Works

Georges Lotfi, an 81-year-old antiquities dealer who for years passed information to authorities on how to track down looted items, has been charged with criminal possession of stolen property, according to a report from Artnet. According to Artnet’s analysis of the arrest warrant, Lofti was listed on loan paperwork as “the first documented possessor” of a marble bull’s head valued at $12 million that was seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017. “I was fighting with them for 10 years to stop illicit trading, and they turned against me,” Lotfi told The New York Times.