| The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has more than 1,000 objects in its collection that have ties to people involved in crimes related to the antiquities trade, according to a new report. At least 1,109 pieces in the Met's collection are suspect. The museum has almost two dozen pieces that once belonged to notorious American antiquities dealer Robert E. Hecht.
The Met first started to acquire objects from Hecht in the 1950s, and continued to do so even after Hecht was charged by Italian prosecutors with smuggling in 1959 and 1961. The Met also has more than 800 objects that once belonged to Jonathan P. Rosen, a business partner of Hecht's who was charged alongside Hecht in Italy in 1997. Another 85 pieces in the Met's collection are connected to Subhash Kapoor, another famous antiquities thief, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in India last year for trafficking offenses.
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