Coordinated raids on four Southern California museums early Thursday suggest that the involvement of art institutions in the purchase of looted objects is far more extensive than recent high-profile scandals have indicated.
Even as the country's most prominent museums were embarrassed by revelations of stolen artifacts in their collections, several local museums continued to pursue objects they had reason to believe were taken illegally from Thailand, Myanmar, China and Native American sites within the United States, according to search warrants served Thursday.
Dozens of federal agents descended on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and Mingei International Museum in San Diego.
The raids marked the first public move in a five-year undercover investigation of the alleged smuggling pipeline.
Museum officials defended their practices and pledged to cooperate fully in the investigations.
The detailed warrants gave the agents broad authority to search the museums' galleries, offices, storage areas and computer archives. They were looking for objects and records related to the primary targets of the investigation: an alleged art smuggler, Robert Olson, and the owner of a Los Angeles Asian art gallery, Jonathan Markell. Markell's Silk Roads Gallery on La Brea Avenue was also raided.
No arrests were made, but legal experts say the surprise search warrants suggest prosecutors are collecting the final elements to seek criminal indictments against Markell and Olson.
The action comes after several years in which the art world has been hammered by claims from Italy and Greece that major American museums -- most prominently the J. Paul Getty Museum -- purchased art that had been stolen from and smuggled out of those countries.
The Getty agreed last year to return 40 of its most prized objects, following similar deals by museums in Boston and New York. The Getty's former antiquities curator is on trial in Rome, accused of knowingly buying looted art, a charge she denies.
This case could go further. The warrants served Thursday show prosectors have carefully laid a foundation for the possible indictment of museum staffers allegedly complicit in the looting schemes -- which would be a first under American law, experts say.
The warrants are based on a five-year undercover investigation by an unnamed agent with the National Park Service, who presented himself to Olson and Markell as an eager collector.
