Former museum director charged with stealing Egyptian antiquities
The ousted head of Long Island University’s Hillwood Museum has been charged with stealing ancient Egyptian artifacts from the museum and trying to auction them at Christie’s.
Barry Stern, 61, admitted he took the nine pieces – each more than 2,000 years old. A preliminary search of the museum’s collection found other pieces missing.
The stolen artifacts turned up in Christie’s auction catalogue in June, from “the collection of Barry Stern”, 10 months after Stern’s contract was terminated. Eight of the objects sold for a total of $51,500.
A worker at the museum became suspicious after the auction house faxed a purchase offer to Stern at his old office.
After taking the objects, Stern deleted descriptions of the antiquities from the museum’s database, authorities said.
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