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Published 5th May 2021
Kim Kardashian West denies purchasing looted ancient Roman statue
Written by Megan C. Hills, CNN
Reality star Kim Kardashian West has been named in court filings alleging she was involved in importing an ancient Roman statue that US officials say was stolen from Italy.
Court documents filed Friday in California say the US government has sought the forfeiture of a looted, smuggled and illegally exported antique that it believes was being delivered to the star.
But a spokesperson for Kardashian West said she never purchased this piece and that this is the first that she has learned of its existence.
Kim Kardashian Must Forfeit an Ancient Roman Sculpture That Experts Say Was Looted From Italy
The celebrity influencer purchased the work from Axel Vervoordt Gallery in 2016.
US media personality Kim Kardashian in 2019. Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images.
The U.S. government is seeking the forfeiture of an ancient Roman sculpture that celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian was in the process of acquiring after officials determined that it had been illegally smuggled out of Italy.
The statue was detained at the U.S. border in 2016 after a logistics company working for Kardashian tried to import it with the wrong documentation. New legal documents, first pointed out on Twitter by federal courts reporter Robert Snell and independently verified by Artnet News, have concluded that the work was “looted, smuggled, and illegally exported,” and Italian authorities have requested its repatriation.
A statue was imported from Europe in Kim Kardashian s name in 2016
Her Calabasas home was being worked on by Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt
Kardashian s spokesman told DailyMail.com she had no idea of the purchase
Vervoordt said he bought the statue in 2012, having borrowed it previously
Officials argue there were two statues - one bought legally, one looted from Italy
The Paris antique dealer who sold it to Verdoordt insists there is only one
He said that they bought it legally, and its sale did not contravene any laws
Italian authorities have requested its repatriation
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A Roman statue that was allegedly en route to Kim Kardashian is now the subject of a lawsuit by the U.S. government.
Sometimes considered an idol herself, Kardashian is named as an interested party in a lawsuit by the U.S. government regarding a sculpture of the lower half of a human figure. The civil forfeiture suit, filed with the U.S. District Court of Central California last Friday, said that the defendant s antique Roman statue was smuggled and illegally exported from Italy. Based on the information and scientific aspects [an] archaeologist provided, the archaeologist opined that the defendant statute was looted, smuggled and illegally exported from Italy, the filing read.