Asian Antiquities Expert Indicted for Federal Wire Fraud

LOS ANGELES—Asian antiquities expert Roxanna Brown has been indicted on charges of federal wire fraud, the Pasadena Star News reports. Brown, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Thailand's Bangkok University, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms that inflated the value of ancient artifacts, which were then donated to a number of museums. The U.S. government claims that the antiquities were overvalued so that collectors could cheat on their taxes by declaring fraudulent deductions.

In January, federal agents raided the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, and Silk Roads Gallery in Los Angeles in search of southeast Asian antiquities allegedly obtained unlawfully and then used in the tax scheme. A federal agent also went undercover in 2006, posing as an antiquities collector to meet with Jonathan and Cari Markell, the owners of Silk Roads. The Markells have not been arrested, but Brown is being held in custody and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.