Just a few short months after she was under federal investigation for trying to import a stolen Roman statue, Kim Kardashian is at the center of yet another missing ancient artifact case.
According The New York Post, a photo of Kardashian posing next to an Egyptian coffin at the 2018 Met Gala is helping crack a long-running criminal case and track down the location of the stolen treasure. Originally purchased by the Met in 2017, the sarcophagus was apparently looted from Minta in 2011 during the Egyptian revolution where it was then trafficked through the Emirates to Germany where it was then restored by the manager of Hamburg's Dionysos Gallery, Roben Dib, and supplied with fake documentation.
From there, the golden coffin made its way to France before it was eventually purchased by the Met for $4 million, winding up next to Kardashian in a candid photo op. Discussing the smuggling case in his podcast, "Art Bust," Ben Lewis explained, "a looter involved in digging up the coffin contacted the DA's antiquities-trafficking unit after they did not receive their share of the payment for the job. Head of the DA unit Matthew Bogdanos, who had been trying to locate the smuggling ring for five years, then immediately opened up a case for the item and informed the Met of the development. The museum was able to confirm its identity through a mummified finger bone still lurking inside the coffin."
Earlier this year, Kardashian was caught up in another art smuggling incident after the Axel Vervoordt gallery in Belgium attempted to import an ancient Roman statue for her Calabasas mansion. The Fragment of Myron's Samian Athena, which dates all the way back to the first or second century, was detained at the US border after authorities noticed discrepancies in the documentation.
Photo via Getty/ ANGELA WEISS/ AFP