The Medici Conspiracy : The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums

Oxbow says: What could easily be a work of fiction, this book reveals the scandals of the murky world of the illicit trading of ancient treasures. Peter Watson has earned himself a reputation for exposing scandals of the art world and here he explores and exposes the key figures and networks of the illegal trade in antiquities. This is a book about illegal excavation, smuggling, obscure provenances, uncertain acquisitions, million dollar deals, theft, art works going to ground and suddenly reappearing, phone tapping, police investigations, interrogations, trials and convictions. The name of Giacomo Medici features prominently in this study, although major institutions such as the Getty Museum, the British Museum, Sotheby's and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are not exempt. In highlighting the sheer scale of illicit activities, Peter Watson joins Dr Chris Chippindale and Dr David Gill in concluding that this is a 'commercial cesspool of greed and vanity founded on loot and filled with deceit at every level' and in the final chapter he considers what the art world needs to do to clean up its act.

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