Federal agents busted a black-market ring that smuggled ancient Egyptian artifacts from Dubai to Manhattan by claiming they were “wooden panels” and other innocent items, authorities said yesterday.
One of the invaluable showpieces, part of a set of three 2,500-year-old sarcophagi, was seized during a search of the Brooklyn home of Mousa “Morris” Khouli, owner of an East 55th Street antique gallery.
Investigators said Khouli got it and other mummy coffins, as well as a set of Egyptian funerary boats and limestone figures, from two fellow antique dealers, Ayman Ramadan, a Jordanian who is a fugitive, and Salem Alshaidit, a Michigan-based dealer in rare coins.
They managed to get the items into the United States by lying about their origin and value on shipping labels and customs paperwork, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday.
Khouli, 37, sold the items to a Virginia antiques dealer, Joseph Lewis II, and gave him bogus pedigrees that claimed they were acquired by Khouli’s father in Israel in the 1960s.
But authorities say both men knew their true origin, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Several of the items were seized during a search of Lewis’ home yesterday. Parts of two other mummy coffins were discovered in November 2009 when they arrived as sea cargo in Newark.
ICE Special-Agent-in Charge James Hayes called it “groundbreaking case.”
“It is the first time an alleged cultural-property network has been dismantled in the United States,” he said.
During the investigation, the feds were able to authenticate the artifacts with the help of the star of the TV series “Chasing Mummies,” Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass.
Khouli and Lewis pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.
At the Manhattan Art and Antique Center, where Khouli’s Palmyra Heritage Inc. has offices, a fellow store owner said, “He’s nice. Sometimes he brings his kids. I don’t have any qualms [about] him.”
