The Abu Dhabi Museum was born out of an intergovernmental agreement signed in 2007 between the United Arab Emirates and France.
Jean-François Charnier is suspected of having promoted the sale of Egyptian antiquities to the Louvre Abu Dhabi despite doubts about their origin.
A former executive of Agence France Museums, Jean-François Charnier, was indicted and placed under judicial supervision on Thursday in the investigation into trafficking in looted Egyptian antiquities which would have been sold to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a-t -we learned from a judicial source. Arrested on Monday, Jean-François Charnier was presented Thursday at the end of his police custody to an investigating judge. He was indicted for money laundering by facilitating the false justification of the origin of the property of the perpetrator of a crime or an offense and placed under judicial supervision, said the judicial source.
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Noémi Daucé, curator of heritage, also placed in police custody on Monday, was released on Wednesday without prosecution at this stage, said this source. Jean-François Charnier, a former executive of the Agence France Museum (AFM), is suspected of having favored the sale of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre Abu Dhabi despite doubts about their fraudulent origin, according to a source familiar with the matter.
A graduate of the École du Louvre, former director of Culture and Heritage at the French Agency for the Development of Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia , he was the scientific director of Agence France Museums in charge of choosing the works for the Louvre Abu Dhabi . As part of this investigation conducted by the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC), the former boss of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez , was indicted in May and placed under judicial supervision.
False certificate of origin and millions of euros
Jean-Luc Martinez, who disputes the facts, is being prosecuted for complicity in fraud in an organized gang and laundering by false facilitation of the origin of property from a crime or misdemeanor. He is suspected of having "closed his eyes" to fraudulent certificates of origin of five Egyptian antiquities acquired "for several tens of millions of euros" by the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the branch of the Parisian museum in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Born of an intergovernmental agreement signed in 2007 between the United Arab Emirates and France and linked to the Louvre Museum by a cooperation agreement, the Louvre Abu Dhabi depends on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the emirate. In this judicial investigation carried out since 2020 by Parisian investigating judges after two years of preliminary investigation, at least three other people - an expert in Mediterranean archeology, a merchant and a German-Lebanese gallery owner - are indicted.
This traffic would concern hundreds of parts and would involve several tens of millions of euros, according to sources familiar with the matter. Seen in Le Figaro Culture
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