A Los Angeles art dealer was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on Dec. 14 for conspiring to smuggle stolen archeological pieces into the United States. The antiquities were later used in a charitable donation tax fraud scheme involving museums and universities.

The defendant, Jonathan M. Markell, 70, a resident of the Westchester District of Los Angeles, owns Silk Roads Design Gallery, which previously was located on North La Brea Avenue and now operates in the Jefferson Park District. United States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson called Markell’s crimes “significant” and said it is “important to send a message” to art collectors, gallery owners and museums that they should avoid collecting and trading looted antiquities.

Markell previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle stolen antiquities into the United States by making false declarations to U.S. Customs authorities.

In a second case, Markell pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit tax fraud. Markell admitted smuggling antiquities from Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and China into the United States for sale in his gallery.

Markell knew that many of the antiquities had been looted from an ancient civilization located in Ban Chiang, Thailand, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has designated as a “World Heritage” site. An expert on Southeast Asian archaeology testified in court that the looting of the Ban Chiang sites, which are thousands of years old, to is “devastating to the archeology of Thailand.”

“Mr. Markell’s greed placed his art gallery’s profits above the culture and heritage of the people of Thailand,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “Not only did he play a significant role in the international trade of looted artifacts, Markell also participated in a scheme designed to illegally provide tax deductions to art collectors.”

Once in possession of the antiquities in the United States, Markell engaged in a tax fraud scheme involving fake charitable deductions. After obtaining the Thai antiquities, Markell bundled the antiquities into “charitable donation packages” that were donated to museums and universities. Markell prepared fraudulent appraisals to falsely inflate the value of the antiquities. He provided the appraisals to co-conspirators who used the fraudulent documents to claim inflated charitable donation tax deductions.

Markell’s wife, 68-year-old Carolyn Markell, was also sentenced on Dec. 14 for her role in the tax fraud conspiracy. In addition to being ordered to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for fraudulent tax deductions, she and her husband were ordered to repatriate 337 antiquities seized from their residence and gallery to Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and China.