Ashraf Omar Eldaril has been sentenced to six months in four counts of smuggling. Court applications show that Eldaryl had been selling things as an ancient Egyptian era for many years.
Ptolemy era artifacts recovered off the coast of Alexandria
Archaeologists recover artifacts from submerged cities near Alexandria. The work will be exhibited at the National Museum of Alexandria.
New York City – The man who worked with the tomb attacker was sentenced to prison for smuggling hundreds of ancient artefacts plundered from Egyptian basements, including 1900 BC sculptures and king sculptures taken from royal temples.
Ashraf Omar Eldarir, 52, has won six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to four counts of smuggling. Eldarir’s legal saga, originally a naturalized US citizen from Egypt, began in February 2020 when he was arrested at JFK airport.
The artifact was fresh from the ground, so prosecutors said they still smelled the dirt. According to court documents, Eldarir worked directly with Egyptian tomb raiders to obtain the artifact.
William Campos, a US lawyer for the Eastern District of New York, told the robber in the courtroom that he “choose the video of the object from the cemetery, as if it were k-mart and this was the choice.”
Judge Rachel P. Cobner did not impose a fine due to Eldarir’s financial situation. The Egyptian government seized his assets and frozen his bank account. However, the Eastern District acknowledged the highly organized nature of Eldarir’s plans.
“This is a serious crime that was happening in a rather blatant way,” Cobner said, handing over the sentence of the ancient Eldarir, smuggled. “The evidence on the phone shows they were fresh from the ground, he was marking what he wanted.
Eldarir told the US Customs and Border Protection that his package was worth around $300. The appraiser evaluated the item at around $82,000, according to a court application. Law enforcement later linked him with three other cases of smuggling in April, June and November 2019.
According to court documents, Eldaryl commissioned the Palmyra heritage, Arte Primitivo and Christie’s ancient times at the next auction house in New York City.
Prosecutors say Eldarir will use photo editing software to create forged documents, making them look old. He also provided the auction house with copies of the forged source paper to avoid a thorough scrutiny of the original fake paper, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Not providing original origin documents is considered unusual in the art world, but the object was accepted regardless of court filings.
Palmyra did not respond to requests for comment. Arte Primitivo and Christie’s declined to comment.
“I ask her soul for forgiveness”: Defendant speaks in court
In court, the three fathers were held liable and sought forgiveness from his family, including his wife and his mother, who died shortly after hearing about the lawsuit against him.
“She couldn’t stand the news, so I asked her soul for forgiveness,” Eldarir told the court.
Eldarir has for many years pretended to be a provider of a large ancient collection belonging to his grandfather, prosecutors said.
According to the US Lawyer’s Office, between 2011 and 2019, he sold about 500 objects as antiques on commission, earning over $600,000. The Egyptian native handed them out to the NYC auction house using the same fake documents he used on the objects he pleaded guilty to smuggling.
The false source paper stated that the object belonged to his grandfather and had been taken from Egypt before 1948, which was still legal, court documents state.
“This is not a case of Jean Valjean stole a bowl of bread,” Campos told the judge, asking for a higher sentence. “This is the case for long-time traffickers.”
The prosecutor did not accus him of smuggling the previous objects. Eldarir’s defense attorney suggested that the fraud was in it. This is another common problem in trade.
Eldarir’s lawyer declined to comment.
Egyptian authorities did not respond to requests for comment. The lawyer said in the court that the object has not yet been returned to Egypt.
How often does this happen?
Data shows that the New York office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shares it with USA Today, so authorities regularly meet people trying to bring bone quot items into the area.
Francis J. Russo, director of CBP’s New York Field Office, said: “Every day, our officers work tirelessly to protect both our safety and the world’s cultural heritage, revealing other sophisticated smuggling plots while doing so.”
Data shared with USA Today showed that the agent had recovered 558 objects in 16 cases so far in fiscal year 2025. 50 objects spanning 15 incidents in 2024. 603 objects spanning 20 encounters from the previous year.
According to the CBP, the objects came from the following countries: Cyprus, Denmark, Hong Kong, Morocco, Pakistan, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
Things you need to know about ancient human trafficking
Eldarir’s ruling in Brooklyn’s federal court is amid a massive upheaval of the art world over whether ancient crafts should be sold. Critics say this practice encourages grave raiders to loot ancient archaeological sites, and objects belong to their country of origin.
Prosecutors have been actively working on issues in recent years. On the other side of the East River, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office regularly announces the success of the ancient human trafficking sector, including returning 11 ancients to Egypt in May. According to the district attorney’s office, the object is part of a seizure of a group of 135 bone goods worth $58 million.
Some of the multi-million dollar objects earn millions of dollars, though aligned with the destruction caused by looting them, according to a doctorate in forensic archaeology from Cambridge University and a doctorate in forensic archaeology to become one of the leading researchers in the stolen ancient art world.
“It’s about the complete and almost irreversible loss of our history,” said Tsirogiannis, who leads a group fighting illegal ancient human trafficking at the University of Ionia on the Greek island. “It doesn’t matter whether the object is filled with gold, platinum or diamonds. This charming and unique object does not tell us anything about who we are, who we came, or what it means to our civilization.”
