Pratiksha Shome
Californian man on suspicion of unlawfully importing a Roman mosaic that had been taken from Syria during the civil war. The collector, 56-year-old Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi, is charged by the Justice Department for declaring on import papers that an ancient work of art valued hundreds of thousands of dollars was only worth $587. However, his defence counsel now maintains that the ancient work of art is a fake. In 2015, Alcharihi bought the mosaic from Turkey as part of a bigger consignment that included two mosaics, dozens of vases, and other items valued at $2,200. Later on, he acknowledged purchasing the lot for $12,000.
One piece of evidence against Alcharihi is a text message with a photograph of the mosaic received by a Syrian friend at the beginning of 2015. In court documents before being charged in July 2020, he allegedly acknowledged spending $40,000 to fix what he called a “Turkish mosaic,” though he claimed to have imported it “as trash,” according to Courthouse News. The 18 feet by 8 feet, 2,000 pound mosaic that has now gotten Alcharihi into legal difficulties is also eight feet tall. It shows scenes from the Hercules tale. The mosaic was taken during an FBI search on Alcharihi’s Palmdale, California, house in 2016. A government expert described it as a 2,000-year-old mosaic from the Byzantine period that is stylistically similar to other ancient pieces from the area around Idlib, Syria.
Alcharihi’s attorney, federal public defender Ashley Mahmoudian, contested the mosaic’s authenticity during opening arguments last week and attributed the falsifications on the import form to an inexperienced customs broker who made numerous mistakes. Nevertheless, the expert will attest at the trial to the work’s authenticity, including the advanced age of the materials and their origins in the Eastern Mediterranean. Mr. Alcharihi lacks art knowledge. She said that her client was just a guy seeking a lucrative business opportunity and that he had never seen the mosaic before it arrived in the United States. “The mosaic is fake.”
Randall Hixenbaugh, a New York art dealer and antiquities specialist, testified for the defence last week. He questioned elements of the mosaic’s symbology, particularly a picture of a woman wearing trousers, which he thought was odd because “wearing trousers is a symbol of male barbarism,” according to Courthouse News. Despite estimating that the work was only worth $30,000—less than what Alcharihi had spent on restorations—Hixenbaugh did not openly call the work a fake. Hixenbaugh did not study the mosaic in person, but the government prevailed in a move in January to allow it to be shown to the jury during the trial rather than requesting that they simply depend on pictures of the enormous piece of art. Judge George H. Wu is presiding over the trial, which is on its fourth day, at the Central District Court of California.
Source: Artnet news
