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The Arts Blog ~ News and notes on Orange County's world of arts, from Tim Mangan (classical music), Laura Bleiberg (dance), Paul Hodgins (theater) and Richard Chang (visual art).
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Asian antiquities expert arrested

May 13th, 2008, 11:53 am · 1 Comment · posted by Richard Chang

Roxanna M. Brown, director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, was arrested late Friday in Seattle. She was indicted on a federal wire fraud charge stemming from an ongoing investigation into the importation of stolen or looted antiquities from Southeast Asia.

You can read about her arrest and indictment here.

You might remember that the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art and three other museums were raided by federal agents in January. The agents were seeking smuggled artifacts from Thailand and American Indian lands. You can read about that story here.

Anyway, Roxanna M. Brown does not have any direct connections to Orange County or the Bowers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. But the investigation is broad and ongoing, and we might hear about more arrests and actions in the coming months.

Stay tuned.

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Posted in: Visual Art by Richard Chang |

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One Response to “Asian antiquities expert arrested”

  1. Mary Q. Johnson Says:
    May 30th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    Shameful! Shameful! Shameful! An innocent, well-recognized scholarly art historian, Dr. Roxanne Brown had to die after being arrested under false allegations! She had to die alone! May the culprits who arrested her be held responsible and accountable for what they failed to do — release her! I am enraged!
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