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Stolen ancient Islamic tiles found at Sotheby's
Justin Davenport, Evening Standard16.04.08
Rare Islamic artefacts stolen from mosques in Turkey have been recovered by police after going on sale at Sotheby's in London.
Two groups of 500-year-old tiles and a pair of priceless marble doors appeared in auction house catalogues where they were spotted by Turkish officials, who alerted police.
Another three groups of 18th century tiles, which together make up an image of the Kaaba in Mecca and were valued at £30,000, were recovered from a London art dealer who contacted police himself after learning they may have been stolen from an Istanbul mosque in 2003. The dealer, who has not been named, had bought the tiles from a Kuwaiti sheikh living in Claridges who has since died.
All the items were identified and confirmedto be stolen and then returned to Turkey after inquiries by Scotland Yard's Arts and Antiques Squad.
The items found at Sotheby's included 16th century tiles stolen from an Imperial Ottoman tomb in the New Mosque in Istanbul in 2002 and the 16th/17th century Ottoman doors taken from the Mehmet Pasa mosque in Amasya City, also in 2002.
Police discovered the tiles had been purchased in Beirut in good faith and the doors, which appeared on a 2003 Turkish tourism poster, had exchanged hands several times before they appeared at Sotheby's.
During a three-year investigation by the Met, one London art dealer was arrested and later released without charge and enquiries led to dealers in Germany and the Middle East before the trail went cold.
Dozens of pages of photographs, measurements and sketches were sent between London and Turkey to prove the authenticity of the doors before the seller, a Saudi Arabian national, agreed to allow their return to Turkey.
Dc Halina Racki of the Arts and Antiques Squad said: "London has a huge art market so it is the destination of a lot of stolen items. Turkey keeps very good records of its artefacts so it is much easier to work with them than a lot of countries. It is very satisfying to see these back where they belong."
