Kim Kardashian Denies Buying Smuggled Roman Statue
On 5/5/21 at 6:10 AM EDT
Kim Kardashian has been asked to forfeit an ancient Roman sculpture that was apparently illegally smuggled out of Italy.
Authorities say the reality television star bought a statue that was looted, smuggled, and illegally exported from the country though Kardashian denies ever purchasing the piece.
The sculpture is the Fragment of Myron s Samian Athena and dates to the 1st or 2nd century AD, or the early to mid-Roman Empire. Italy has asked for the work to be repatriated after a long journey that saw it end up in Los Angeles.
Kim Kardashian Unaware Smuggled Ancient Roman Sculpture Was Imported in Her Name
Celebrity
The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star is ordered to forfeit the Fragment of Myron s Samian Athena statue by the U.S. government because it was illegally looted from Italy. May 5, 2021
Kim Kardashian has denied reports suggesting she had smuggled an Ancient Roman sculpture. The
Keeping Up with the Kardashians star, who has been ordered to forfeit the Fragment of Myron s Samian Athena statue by the U.S. government, insisted she s unaware that it was imported in her name.
Offering clarification regarding the matter was the 40-year-old reality star s representative. [She] never purchased this piece and this is the first that she has learned of its existence, the representative said in a released statement.
Kim Kardashian Must Forfeit an Ancient Roman Sculpture That Experts Say Was Looted From Italy
The celebrity influencer purchased the work from Axel Vervoordt Gallery in 2016.
US media personality Kim Kardashian in 2019. Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images.
The U.S. government is seeking the forfeiture of an ancient Roman sculpture that celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian was in the process of acquiring after officials determined that it had been illegally smuggled out of Italy.
The statue was detained at the U.S. border in 2016 after a logistics company working for Kardashian tried to import it with the wrong documentation. New legal documents, first pointed out on Twitter by federal courts reporter Robert Snell and independently verified by Artnet News, have concluded that the work was “looted, smuggled, and illegally exported,” and Italian authorities have requested its repatriation.
A statue was imported from Europe in Kim Kardashian s name in 2016
Her Calabasas home was being worked on by Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt
Kardashian s spokesman told DailyMail.com she had no idea of the purchase
Vervoordt said he bought the statue in 2012, having borrowed it previously
Officials argue there were two statues - one bought legally, one looted from Italy
The Paris antique dealer who sold it to Verdoordt insists there is only one
He said that they bought it legally, and its sale did not contravene any laws
Italian authorities have requested its repatriation