Les lieux de ventes d’objets archéologiques : luxe, calme et confidentialité

This paper deals with the illicit trafficking of archaeological objects looted in Greece during the current economic crisis. It focuses on the ways art trafficking is entwined with money laundering and tax evasion, namely the main consequences and challenges of the crisis for the European governments. It also highlights some cases with original interviews eg Yves Bouvier, CEO of Natural Le Coultre in Geneva free ports. Although known as the best in class among Unesco members regarding its legislation to fight art trafficking, “Switzerland remains one of the last countries where everything can be purchased with cash, i-e-without cap on cash payments” warns investigative journalist and a specialist in the Swiss banking system, Ian Hamel. Switzerland also shelters an undefined number of free ports (Geneva, Zurich and Bale free-ports being the best known) providing facilities to store, sell, ship or restore works of art, with a single key rule: confidentiality. Swiss born Yves Bouvier heads Natural Le Coultre, which is the largest private shareholder of Geneva Free port, with Geneva Canton being its major public owner. Natural Le Coultre is a worldwide leader in art transport and warehousing. Despite the crisis, the Geneva free port is fully occupied and has yet been enlarged. With the art market moving east, Yves Bouvier has invested in a Singapore Freeport settlement and still believes that Geneva is “bound to remain” a “crossroads of the art market”. Earlier in 2015, Yves Bouvier was investigated for fraud and money laundering. This suit is likely to raise legal interest in Geneva Free port trade practices. It also highlights what Jean Francois Gayraud, a writer and Police chief Inspector in France, calls “white-collar” crime. White-collar crime features criminals who are rich, and powerful, and who remain above suspicion. Their legal work position provides them with means to develop criminal activities at no risk, whereas blue collars criminals may be current economic crisis victims: eg Greek people living in impoverished conditions or unemployed people involved in illicit excavation and looting of antiquities in order to survive… As Neil Brodie, archaeologist and member of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow, puts it “I'd like to see full police investigations of the networks, knocking the principal players down.”