Kim Kardashian’s sexy 2018 Met Gala photo ‘helped solve case of missing $4M gold Egyptian coffin’

The photo alone wasn't enough to act on, so Bogdanos asked the informant's connection to send any digital images he had of the coffin.

The looter sent several photos from the moment it was excavated, and the law enforcement officer was able to match them to the real thing.

HOME AGAIN

The coffin was a huge score for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It was the star of an exhibition in July 2018 — just a few months ofter Kim posed with the piece.

Nearly half a million people flocked to the museum to see it.

After investigators learned the truth about the piece, however, it was returned to Egypt and put on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Nedjemankh was not inside the coffin, however.

Looters dumped the mummified remains of the Egyptian high priest in the River Nile.

They made one mistake, though: the looters left a finger bone inside the coffin.

It was still attached when the item appeared on display at the Met.

MORE TO THE STORY

Bogdanos received information about other artifacts that were dug up and, he believed, sold, but he couldn't match them to any other new acquisitions.

He was limited in what he could act on by jurisdiction as well.

The detective could only act on items in the New York area, meaning he could only nab looters for the coffin.

Bogdanos was able to dig up a lot of information about the artifact.

He found evidence showing that Dib wired money to local criminals and, in exchange, took "the antiquities to Germany."

A LONG HISTORY

The coffin made its rounds across the globe before winding up in New York.

In 2013, it was given to Hassan Fazeli, an antiquities dealer in Sharjah.

He exchanged emails about the item, according to Bogdanos, referring to it as "the yellow."

Fazeli also completed an export form incorrectly, labelling the piece as a Greco-Roman artifact in an attempt to hide its origins and the fact that it was illegally harvested and moved.

The coffin then made its way to a German dealer called Roben Dib, who managed the Dionysos Gallery in Hamburg.

The Times noted that it's unclear whether Serop Simonian, the gallery's owner, knew about the items origins.

Dib is responsible, according to Bogdanos, for restoring the artifact and faking an Egyptian export license that said it was legally exported back in 1971.

From there, the coffin was dispatched to Christophe Kunicki, a French antiquities scholar and dealer, and his partner Richard Semper.

It is, again, unclear if they knew of the item's illegal origins.

The pair offered the coffin to the Met, which agreed to pay $4 million for it.

Despite the criminality, Bogdanos noted that curators at the museum should have been more careful and meticulous when looking into the coffin's background.

Kunicki and Semper were arrested in June 2020 and charged with fraud, money laundering and forgery.

Their case has yet to go to trial, but the pair maintain they are innocent.

Dib was arrested. inAugust 2020 in Germany "on suspicion of art trafficking."

ALL APOLOGIES

Met CEO Daniel Weiss apologized to the people of Egypt in February 2019 while announcing that the item would be returned.

He also said sorry to Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany.

Weiss said: "After we learned that the Museum was a victim of fraud and unqittingly participated in the illegal trade of antiquities, we worked with the DA's office for its return to Egypt."

The museum also said it would "consider all available remedies to recoup the purchase price of the coffin" and promised to "review and revise its acquisitions process."