Giacomo Medici (art dealer)

Giacomo Medici is an Italian antiques dealer, who was convicted in 2004 for trafficking in stolen antique artwork. His actions are considered to be " one of the largest and most sophisticated antiquities networks in the world, which was responsible for illegal excavations and the illegal export of thousands of high-quality individual pieces. His clients belonged to the very top of the international art market. "

In 1995, a company specializing in the protection of cultural property unit of the Italian Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale the (TCP) began previously to determine from a collection of stolen ancient marble statues against Medicis company Editions services due to the sale of three. On September 13, 1995 investigated Swiss and Italian officials storerooms of the company near the airport of Geneva, in which goods had been stored for resale. There, hundreds have been found from ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan pieces, among them a more than 2 million U.S. dollars more expensive Etruscan square plate. In addition to these pieces found investigators extensive correspondence between Medici and art dealers including London and New York as well as a kind of archive, were found in the thousands of photos of antique pieces that were sold by the Medici. In some cases, the entire process of the illegal excavation, through professional restoration to the sale of the valuable pieces of high amounts was photographically documented. The investigators found photos of illegally excavated pieces that landed in well-known museums.

Medici was arrested in 1997 and finally in 2004 sentenced by a court in Rome to 10 years in prison and a fine in the amount of 10 million euros, the highest fine ever imposed in Italy for art theft.

The findings from the investigation of the Medici in 2005 led to investigations by the Italian police against the antiquities dealer Robert E. Hecht and against the former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Marion True, because of illegal art exports. The process was set in 2010.