Kim Kardashian may have been in the news of late for her high-profile divorce with music mogul Kanye West.
But the reality TV star is now grabbing headlines for a much different kind of controversy.
An ancient, stolen piece of art.
According to Los Angeles Times reporting, Kardashian is linked to the theft of an ancient Roman statue worth an estimated $750,000.
Federal authorities seized the stolen statue and plan on returning it to Italy.
Local Detroit area reporter Robert Snell took to Twitter, posting a photo of Kardashian’s name featured in the court documents.
https://twitter.com/robertsnellnews/status/1388279597003907072
According to reports, the statue — “Fragment of Myron’s Samian Athena” — was “looted, smuggled” and exported from Italy into the U.S.
It was allegedly Kardashian who purchased the statue from the Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium back in 2016. It may be worth noting that the Vervoordt gallery is reportedly responsible for the interior designing of Kardashian’s home in California.
Artnet News explains that suspicions first arose when the statue was detained at the U.S. border, and the company handling the logistics for Kardashian provided some “fuzzy” documentation on the statue.
The alleged exportation of the statue breaches an agreement between the U.S. and Italy to preserve archaeological material.
So, Kardashian, Vervoordt, and her handlers reportedly attempted to pass off the imported statue as an “antique” from Germany to skirt the international protections.
Yet and still, Kardashian and her team claim that they don’t know anything about this statue.
One of her representatives told the Page Six tabloid: “We believe it may have been purchased using her name without authorization and because it was never received, she was unaware of the transaction. We encourage an investigation and hope that it gets returned to the rightful owners.”
“Kim never purchased this piece and this is the first that she has learned of its existence.”
The Horn editorial team