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MANHATTAN ◄ P.11
WEEK OF JANUARY
18-24 2018
RECOVERING STOLEN HISTORY LAW ENFORCEMENT Local prosecutors step up efforts to slow illicit antiquities trade BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
When one thinks of hotbeds of criminal activity in Manhattan, the tony stretches of the Upper East Side are not the locale that immediately comes to mind. But in recent years, the high-end storefronts, venerable museums and multimillion-dollar homes of the city’s Silk Stocking District have become the frontlines of a law enforcement crackdown that has prompted coordination between local, federal and international agencies, and, last month, the formation of a specialized unit within the
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The target of these efforts? Illegal trafficking — not of humans or drugs or stolen consumer goods, but of looted antiquities. The East Side’s concentration of galleries, dealers, auction houses, museums and ultra-wealthy collectors has long made the neighborhood a nexus of the international antiquities trade, a lucrative category of ancient artwork that despite tight regulation has proven susceptible to illegal activity. In the last year, authorities conducted high-profile seizures of a number of illicit antiquities that made their way from far-flung lands to the Upper East Side, sometimes after spending decades on the black market and moving illegally across continents through international smuggling networks.
Objects targeted by prosecutors have included an ancient Persian limestone relief recovered during an art fair at the Park Avenue Armory, a remnant of mosaic tile that once adorned a ship owned by the Roman emperor Caligula and was found in an antique dealer’s Park Avenue apartment, and, in early January, a number of Greek and Roman artifacts seized from the Fifth Avenue residence of hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt. Looted artworks have even turned up in the city’s most prestigious cultural institutions. In July 2017, the Metropolitan Museum of Art surrendered a marble bull’s head dated to 360 B.C. that was on loan to the museum from Steinhardt’s personal collection.
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A 2,400-year-old marble bull’s head and other artifacts stolen from a Lebanese archaeological site were recovered by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and repatriated to the Lebanese government in December. Photo: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
‘WE’RE NOT GOING TO LET HIM HURT US’ IMMIGRATION Trump’s insults loom large over MLK Day ‘Rally Against Racism’ BY MICHAEL GAROFALO AND DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Hundreds of protesters, many of them Haitian-Americans, gathered in Times Square on Martin Luther King Jr. Day for an anti-racism rally following reports of President Donald Trump’s disparaging comments about Haiti and other countries. Photo: Michael Garofalo
When President Donald Trump uttered the vulgarity heard ‘round the world, he enraged the 55-nation African Union and outraged scores of other states from the Caribbean and Latin America to Europe and Asia. But his reference to Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations as “shithole countries” had a painful resonance closer to home: roughly 7.5 percent of the city’s 3.32 million foreign-born residents hail from those lands.
Hundreds of New Yorkers, natives and immigrants alike, took to the streets of Times Square on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to protest the president’s disparaging comments. A crowd filled two blocks along Broadway south of 42nd Street for the Jan. 15 “Rally Against Racism” organized in the aftermath of the president’s remarks, which he uttered during a Jan. 11 meeting on immigration policy with lawmakers and were widely reported the following day. Despite the anger and sadness felt by many in attendance, the demonstration took on an almost festive atmosphere at times. A band played from the stage between speeches from politicians and activists, as protesters clad in the blue and red of the Haitian flag danced and sang Downtowner
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
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along, as though to defy the spirit of Trump’s words. “We’re here to bring awareness to all the Haitians that have fought to be here to get a better opportunity for all of us,” said Haitian-American demonstrator Sarah Rene. “Trump is trying to bring us down, but we’re here. We’re here to be about something better.” The crowd’s size and diversity conveyed the broad swaths of New York’s immigrant population born in the nations Trump referenced as he questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from “shithole countries.” The city’s Haitianborn population of 91,595 makes up 2.8 percent of its foreign-born tally,
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