Overview

• The sentence was imposed on August 27 in Brooklyn by U.S. District Judge Rachel P. Kovner following Eldarir’s February guilty plea to four smuggling counts.
• CBP officers seized 590 undeclared artifacts from three checked suitcases at JFK on January 22, 2020, a haul prosecutors described as the airport’s largest antiquities seizure to date.
• Prosecutors said Eldarir used forged provenance documents and doctored photographs to funnel looted pieces into U.S. auction houses including Palmyra Heritage, Arte Primitivo, and Christie’s.
• Recovered items include gold funerary amulets and wooden tomb model figures dating to around 1900 BCE, with additional artifacts forfeited after the arrest.
• HSI and CBP led the investigation, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it intends to return the seized antiquities to Egypt.