The owners of the Phoenix Ancient Art have been hit pretty hard by a Wall Street Journal article in late May that claimed the dealers were under investigation by authorities for illicit antiquities dealing.
Reaction to the story, the family claims, was swift:
After it appeared, the Toledo Museum of Art returned a $50,000 donation the gallery had made to support an antiquities-related exhibition currently on display there “The Berlin Painter and His World,” the dealer said in an interview.
Hicham Aboutaam’s “personal and professional reputation and business opportunities have been decimated,” according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. […]
Ali Aboutaam, who lives in Geneva and operates his own gallery there, is not a party to the lawsuit. A lawyer for Hicham Aboutaam, Richard Emery, said the business in Geneva has not suffered the same level of damage.
Antiquities Dealer Sues Wall Street Journal Over ISIS Article (The New York Times)
