This morning Judge Paul Gardephe spent a little time with the lawyers in the de Sole-Freedman case discussing matters related to the US Attorney’s delayed sentencing of Glafira Rosales, the admitted contact point of the forgery ring.

Judge Gardephe opined that the lack of a sentence in the case was a strong indication that the US Attorney was still making criminal case and needed Rosales cooperation. The comment is surprising given the long period of time that has elapsed since Rosales’s arrest.

Another indictment may be coming from the feds but Gardephe’s comments are undercut by this unpersuasive story in The Art Newspaper suggesting the recent case against Nicolas Cage over a dinosaur skeleton indicates

a larger push by Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to police the art and antiquities market.

Bharara’s office has overseen at least 15 high-profile art-related forfeiture cases—as the office refers to them—in the past five years.

But when one reads through the story and the list of cases, it quickly becomes apparent that the headline,”Top US Prosecutor Has Art Market in His Sights,” is more hopeful than descriptive. The 15 cases are a random collection of unrelated events involving the US Attorney for the Southern District. One, the prosecution of Helly Nahmad for his involvement in an illegal gambling ring has nothing to do with art.

Top US prosecutor has art market in his sights (The Art Newspaper)