Martinez was in charge of the Louvre from 2013 to 2021. In May, he was charged with "complicity in fraud," "money laundering," and "facilitating" the purchase of artifacts that were linked to a large trafficking ring that police have been looking into for years. French authorities think that between 2014 and 2017, the smugglers and their helpers sold art and artifacts to museums and galleries all over the world, including the Louvre's branch in Abu Dhabi. Jean-Francois Charnier, a curator and archaeologist who used to work with Martinez, was also accused of being involved in the operation. Le Monde says that both are likely to try to change the decision in France's highest court.
Last year, when Martinez and Charnier were first charged, the art world in Paris and around the world was shocked. Martinez is France's official ambassador for international cooperation on cultural heritage issues. He has spent the last few years of his career working to protect art in war zones. He also wrote a report that France gave to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization that outlined new ways to stop looting. After a second look at the evidence against Martinez in November 2022, the public prosecutor asked for the charges against him to be dropped. The prosecutor's decision seemed to show that Martinez, a trained archeologist, had been wrongly accused in the case. In the French legal system, an indictment does not mean that the defendant will have to go to trial. Charges can be dropped at any time by a special magistrate.
Le Monde says that in 2019, police started to wonder about the origin of a stone stele of Tutankhamen that had been bought for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which had not yet opened. Martinez was the head of the Louvre. As head of the museum, he was in charge of a joint government commission whose approval is needed to buy an object for the museum. Police reportedly thought that Martinez had approved a few purchases, even though there was evidence that the items had been stolen, such as fake certificates of provenance and export licenses that came with the relics. Francois Artuphel, Martinez's lawyer, told Le Monde that the court's decision to keep the charges against Martinez was "unjustified" and that he and Martinez "have no doubt that the next step in the process will re-establish this injustice."
Nicolas Sarazin