UK authorities warn art storage businesses could be used by terrorists, sanctions evaders and criminals to hide their wealth
When police swooped on a high-security warehouse near London’s Heathrow airport, officers took away nearly two dozen works of art belonging to alleged Hezbollah financier Nazem Ahmad.
At the same time, at an auction house in central London, they seized art that Mr Ahmad, a Beirut art gallery owner who the US wants to put on trial, had hoped to sell.
The seized works included Picasso’s 1962 linocut Nature morte a la pasteque (Still Life with a Watermelon) and several by Andy Warhol, including Details of Renaissance Paintings (Leonardo da Vinci, The Annunciation, 1472).
A Stanley Whitney painting, Sing All Day, worth £225,000 ($315,000) and Iranian artist Ali Banisadr’s painting Divine Wind, valued at £175,000, were the two most valuable taken by officers.
Police believe the sale of all the work seized – valued at almost £1 million – was probably to have funded crime or terrorism.
The investigation narrowed in on the world of art storage, which legitimate business authorities believe may be exploited by terrorists, sanctions evaders and criminals trying to hide their assets.
With the price of art soaring and the ease with which it can be taken across borders and hidden from view, it is increasingly becoming the commodity criminals want, often stashed for years away from prying eyes.
Alarm bells have been ringing for years for some global experts who spoke to media about their concerns.
Now, law enforcement is sending an “unprecedented shot across the bows” for the industry to be proactive in identifying culprits.
The UK’s National Crime Agency has issued an “Amber Alert” to art storage centres to raise red flags over their use for money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption.
It refers to an investigation into a “sanctioned Hezbollah financier which identified approximately a million pounds sterling in fine artwork belonging to this individual in art storage facilities in the UK”.
Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, has said the sector must “increase its vigilance and embrace their role as the gatekeeper of the legitimate art market”.
The US has offered a $10 million reward for information on Mr Ahmad, 59, who is understood to be living in Beirut.
The Lebanese art dealer and diamond smuggler who has been accused of financing Hezbollah, was first accused by the US Department of the Treasury in 2019 of laundering “substantial” amounts of money and being involved in the smuggling of “blood diamonds” for Hezbollah, which the Americans have designated a terrorist organisation and hit with sanctions.
Mr Ahmad was sanctioned and then in April last year, he was charged by the US along with eight associates, including his UK-based right-hand man Sundar Nagarajan, with offences relating to breaching sanctions regulations.
Mr Nagarajan was extradited to the US in December.
The UK government also sanctioned Mr Ahmad, saying he had an extensive art collection in Britain and conducted business with several UK-based artists, art galleries and auction houses.
A month later came the Metropolitan Police action in which, under a warrant, 23 paintings he owned were seized at a warehouse of art storage company Williams & Hill in Feltham, near Heathrow.
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