Man Who Smuggled Mosaic from Syria Sentenced to Three Months in Jail

A California man was sentenced to 3 months in federal jail in the present day for illegally importing a 2,000-pound historic ground mosaic from Syria to the US.

Choose George W. Hu of the U.S. District Court docket for the Central District of California gave the sentence to 57-year-old Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi. Choose Hu additionally granted the federal government’s utility for a preliminary order of forfeiture for the 15-foot-long, 8-foot-tall Roman mosaic.

The sentence happens greater than a yr after a five-day trial in June 2023, by which a jury discovered Alcharihi responsible of 1 rely of entry of falsely labeled items. The cost carried a statutory most sentence of two years in federal jail.

“It’s uncommon for smugglers of antiquities from the Center East to be caught and prosecutions of such smugglers are uncommon,” United States Lawyer’s Workplace in Los Angeles spokesman Ciaran McEvoy instructed ARTnews in an e mail assertion. “We hope in the present day’s sentence will present antiquities sellers, smugglers, the museum neighborhood, and most people that there are penalties—together with jail time—for these crimes.”

The mosaic, estimated to be 2,000 years outdated, depicts a narrative from historic Greek and Roman mythology. It depicts Hercules rescuing Prometheus after the god of fireplace had been chained to a rock by his fellow deities for stealing the ingredient for humanity.

In line with a press launch, Alcharihi illegally imported the Roman mosaic in August 2015 after paying $12,000, however lied to his customs dealer in regards to the merchandise. Per the discharge, he mentioned he was “importing ceramic tiles from Turkey valued at lower than $600.”

An X-ray picture of the big metallic delivery container used to move the mosaic, taken by US Customs and Border Safety, confirmed that the big and heavy Roman artifact was fastidiously hidden on the entrance of the container, away from the rear entry doorways, behind a pile of vases.

The mosaic arrived on the Port of Lengthy Seashore as a part of a cargo from Turkey. After it handed via customs, it was shipped by truck to Alcharihi’s house.

Along with the acquisition price, Alcharihi paid $40,000 for restoration providers, had it valued by an antiquity seller for $100,000 to $200,000, after which emailed the Getty a couple of doable sale, in keeping with USC Annenberg Media’s Justice Reporting Undertaking. A authorities appraisal knowledgeable later valued the mosaic at $450,000.

Federal brokers searched Alcharihi’s house in March 2016, discovering the mosaic within the storage. Throughout the search, Alcharihi admitted to brokers about mendacity in regards to the object’s monetary and cultural significance, in keeping with court docket paperwork. After the mosaic was seized, it was transferred to a safe facility in Los Angeles, the place is has been saved for the previous eight years.

One knowledgeable instructed ARTnews the three-month jail sentence wasn’t a shock due the mosaic’s modest monetary worth, quite than its dimension, weight, age or historic worth. “Beneath US sentencing pointers, the valuations are what decide the period of time in jail,” mentioned Robert Wittman, the previous senior investigator of the FBI’s fast deployment Artwork Crime Crew. “Whether or not it’s a 50 yr outdated diamond ring price half one million {dollars} or a 2000-year-old antiquity, it doesn’t matter. It’s thought-about property.”

“It’s all primarily based on some extent construction,” Wittman mentioned. “If you break all of it down, it was simply he lied to the federal government when he made false declarations to customs.”

The press launch from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Central District of California famous that Alcharihi’s false classification of the mosaic “occurred months after the United Nations Safety Council adopted a decision condemning the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria, notably by the terrorist organizations Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusrah Entrance.”

The FBI’s Artwork Crime Crew and Homeland Safety Investigations investigated this matter.

The destiny of the mosaic post-sentencing remains to be within the air. The LA Press Workplace of the FBI acknowledged to ARTnews there are appeals pending within the Alcharihi case, however a spokesperson was unable to touch upon the case or what would occur to the Roman artifact.

One other future choice for the mosaic is being utilized in as a chunk of diplomacy with Syria for a kind of treaty or a negotiation. “That works to the benefit of the USA to be magnanimous and return materials that belongs to their nation, their antiquities,” Wittman mentioned.

Nevertheless, even when there have been the potential of a repatriation course of, the looting of museums, warehouses, and archaeological websites in Syria has been an ongoing challenge.

Replace, August 30, 2024: Added feedback from Robert Wittman, the previous senior investigator of the FBI’s fast deployment Artwork Crime Crew.