Jean-Luc Martínez, son and grandson of Spanish immigrants, left office last August and is charged with money laundering and complicity in fraud.
The former president of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martínez, 58, has been charged with money laundering and complicity in fraud in an antiques business involving the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. According to the newspaper ‘Le Monde’, Martínez was arrested last Monday along with the curator of the Egyptian antiquities department of the Paris Museum, Vincent Rondot, and the Egyptologist Olivier Perdu. Martínez, who held the position until last August, has been released, although he remains under judicial supervision as part of a wide-ranging international investigation into the trade in antiquities, which also affects the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
The detainees are under investigation for providing false documents to trace the origin of items looted during the so-called Arab Spring riots in several countries in the Middle East.
Son and grandson of Spanish immigrants who immigrated to France, Martínez came to run the Louvre in 2014 and left seven years later. He was in charge of more than 2,200 employees and a budget of one hundred million euros. Martínez is a professor of art history, an archaeologist and passionate about Greece. Until his jump to the Louvre, he was in charge of the museum’s Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities department.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
