Robert Hecht's next step: publish his "memoir"?

Now that the case against the 92-year old antiquities dealer Robert Hecht Jr. ended on the grounds that the statute of limitations has expired (Marion True's case was similarly dismissed), will "the book about the antiquities underworld" that Hecht authored (see Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, The Medici Conspiracy, pp. 160-179 which include excerpts from the manuscript) finally see the light of day?

According to Watson and Todeschini, seizing Hecht's handwritten manuscript was the main reason for the February 2001 raid on Hecht's Paris apartment. Jason Felch (co-author of Chasing Aphrodite) wrote in the LA Times that Hecht "has cut a wide swath through the art world since the 1950s, supplying museums and collectors around the world with some of the finest examples of ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan art."


Photo: Above: A 2006 photo of American art dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr., center, in a Rome courthouse during his trial for allegedly receiving and conspiring to deal in illegally acquired antiquities. Credit: Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press

Share |

Sphere: Related Content