According to ARTnews’ Shanti Escalante-De Mattei, Beale admitted to smuggling as part of what was likely a plea deal. Richard Beale, owner and managing director of Roma Numismatics, a London-based auction house, was arrested in January. The district attorney’s office says the coin appeared on the international art market in 2016, where it was “offered for sale in Munich with no provenance.” Then, it was smuggled into London and sold to a buyer in the United States. One side shows twin daggers on either side of a cap and the words “EID MAR.” The other bears Brutus’ profile, with the letters “BRVT IMP” and “L PLAET CEST.” Per the Times, these inscriptions stand for “Brutus, Imperator” and “Lucius Plaetorius Cestianus,” who was a “treasurer of sorts” for Brutus. This particular coin is one of only a few known gold Eid Mar coins that exist today. “The image is meant to celebrate the murder as an act by which Rome was liberated from Caesar’s tyranny,” writes the New York Times’ Tom Mashberg. Brutus died later that year when Mark Antony defeated his forces. Brutus had the coins made to pay his soldiers after the assassination, according to the district attorney’s office. The Eid Mar coin was minted in 42 B.C.E., two years after Brutus and a group of senators murdered Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, or March 15. We are honored to join our partners today in the repatriation of this priceless cultural heritage to the people of Greece.” These artifacts, he adds, “were a valued part of life in the ancient world. Arvelo, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in New York, in a statement. “Antiquities trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar business with looters and smugglers turning a profit at the expense of cultural heritage, and Greece-long acknowledged as the cradle of Western civilization-is especially susceptible to this type of criminal enterprise,” says Ivan J. Officials handed over 29 artifacts, some dating as far back as 5000 B.C.E. Last month, it was included in a larger repatriation ceremony at the Greek Consulate in New York City. The coin, however, was actually looted and then fraudulently sold at auction, according to a statement from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. It’s one of the most valuable coins in existence. Now, over two years later, officials have returned it to Greece.Ĭalled the “Eid Mar coin”-it’s inscribed with the phrase “EID MAR,” or the “Ides of March”-the rare artifact was minted by Brutus to commemorate the fall of Julius Caesar. In 2020, a rare gold coin sold for a record-breaking $4.2 million at auction.
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