Daily Times

Authorities seeking illegally acquired antique artworks have searched the apartment and office of a prominent New York billionaire and philanthropist, prosecutors said.

As many as nine pieces were reportedly seized. The target of the inquiry, 77-year-old Michael Steinhardt, made his fortune as a hedge-fund manager. A spokesman for Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. would neither confirm nor deny the seizures Friday but did confirm the searches.

Vance has been active for years in trying to repatriate stolen artworks. Steinhardt is a well-known collector of Greek antiquities and even has a gallery named after him and wife Judy in the Metropolitan Museum, not far from their Fifth Avenue apartment.

Steinhardt told The New York Times he had no comment on the matter “for now.” Copies of search warrants provided to AFP, and signed by a New York judge on January 3, indicated that investigators were seeking about a dozen antiques from Greece and Italy, acquired between 1996 and 2011 for sums ranging from $25,000 to $380,000.

Published in Daily Times, January 8^th 2018.