Disgraced British art dealer's priceless treasure trove discovered hidden in Geneva

A priceless treasure trove of Roman and Etruscan antiquities that was acquired by a disgraced British art dealer has been discovered hidden in a repository in Geneva.

The antiquities were found hidden inside 45 crates and are believed to have been left in the Swiss lock-up by Robin Symes, a high-profile art dealer who fell from grace and was sent to prison.

They had languished there for 15 years, in boxes marked with the name of an offshore company.

The haul includes two life-size Etruscan sarcophaguses, one depicting an elderly man and the other a young woman, both reclining on their sides.

They are among the very few examples of their kind and date from the second century before Christ.

There are also fragments of fresco from Pompeii as well as terracotta pots, decorated vases, busts and bas-reliefs.

Many of the items are believed to have been looted from archaeological sites by tomb raiders.

The crates were discovered by a specialist unit of Italy’s Carabinieri police that deals with art crime, with the collaboration of the Swiss authorities.

The objects were “exceptional pieces (which were taken from) clandestine excavations,” prosecutors in Geneva said in a statement.

They are believed to have been looted from tombs in what remains of the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinia, in the hills north of Rome.

The antiquities have been returned to Rome and are to be unveiled at a press conference later this week.

The investigation dates back to March 2014, when the Italians first began to suspect that looted antiquities might be kept in storage in Geneva.

The search was taken up by the public prosecutor’s office of Geneva, which found “an unexpected treasure – two rare sarcophaguses of Etruscan origin – as well as many other invaluable archaeological remains".

Once they were located, an Italian expert was brought in, concluding that “the objects came from illicit excavations mostly perpetrated in necropolises in former Etruscan territory, now the regions of Lazio and Umbria,” the prosecutors said.

“The Italian Carabinieri have established direct links between some of the objects and the activity of tomb raiders.”

The Swiss authorities described 75-year-old Symes as “a former high-profile British art dealer whose name has been linked in the past to the trading of looted antiquities throughout the world.”

The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Minneapolis Insitute of Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City have had to return antiquities that they acquired through Symes because of fears that they were obtained illicitly.

Once described as “London’s best known and most successful dealer in antiquities,” Symes built up a profitable business with his long-term lover, Christo Michaelides, the heir to a Greek shipping fortune.

From the 1970s they established themselves as the glamour couple of the international market, dividing their time between an apartment in New York, a house in London, a flat in Athens and a villa on the remote Greek island of Schinoussa, in the Cyclades archipelago.

Chauffeured around in Bentleys, they sold antiquities to rich private collectors as well as museums, with their company at one point estimated to be worth £125 million.

But in 1999, during a holiday in Umbria, 56-year-old Mr Michaelides fell down some steps, hit his head and died.

Symes then became involved in a protracted battle at the High Court in London with the family of his former partner.

Mr Michaelides’ family insisted they were entitled to half of the business that the couple had built up, called Robin Symes Ltd.

Symes argued that his former lover had only been an employee of the firm, not a partner.

During the case, he was living in Geneva, which is when it seems he hid the cases full of antiquities in a repository outside the city, in an apparent attempt to keep them out of any final settlement.

He eventually lost the bitter legal fight. Unable to pay legal fees of around £5 million, he declared bankruptcy.

During the court battle, he was found to have lied about two of the deals he had done, misleading the court about how much he had earned in a bid to conceal several million pounds’ worth of assets.

He also told the court that he had stored his antiquities in five warehouses but it later transpired that he had spread them around 29 warehouses, in London, New York and Switzerland.

The judge found that he had committed “a serious and cynical contempt of court” and had “told numerous lies on oath".

He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in jail for contempt of court but released after serving seven months. On Monday he could not be contacted for comment.

In 2006 he was accused of being part of an illicit antiquities network in a book by Peter Watson, an investigative journalist, entitled “The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums.”