Robert E. Hecht Jr., dealer in classical antiquities, dies at 92

When Robert E. Hecht Jr. arrived at the loading platform of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the fall of 1972, he was carrying a large wooden box and was escorted by an armed guard.

Inside the box was perhaps the finest Greek vase to survive antiquity, a masterpiece that would soon be making headlines around the world.

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The Met had agreed to pay a record $1 million for the ancient work. Mr. Hecht said it had been in the private collection of a certain Lebanese gentleman.

But when Met Director Thomas Hoving heard the story, he scoffed: “I bet he doesn’t exist.”

Indeed, as Mr. Hecht later revealed in his unpublished memoir, he had just bought the vase from “loyal suppliers” who had dug it up from ancient tombs outside Rome and smuggled it out of Italy.

The ensuing controversy over the Euphronios krater marked a turning point in the art world, opening the public’s eyes to the shady side of museums. It also solidified Mr. Hecht’s reputation as the preeminent dealer of classical antiquities, driving him underground — but not out of business.

He became a legendary but mysterious figure, one whose passion for ancient art overcame any questions about the destruction wrought by its illicit origins.

Mr. Hecht died Feb. 8 at his home in Paris at 92. His wife, Elizabeth, confirmed the death but did not disclose the cause.

His death comes less than three weeks after the ambiguous end of his criminal trial in Rome on charges of trafficking in looted antiquities. Since the 1990s, Mr. Hecht had been at the center of a wide-ranging Italian investigation that traced objects looted from tombs in Italy through a network of smugglers, dealers and private collectors to museums across the United States, Europe and beyond.

Mr. Hecht was accused of being a key player in that illicit trade, along with his alleged co-conspirators, former J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities curator Marion True and Italian dealer Giacomo Medici.

Medici, who supplied Mr. Hecht with the Met’s famous vase after buying it from looters, was convicted in 2004. The trial of Mr. Hecht and True began in 2005, but the statute of limitations expired before the court could reach a verdict for either.

In a phone interview after his trial ended last month, Mr. Hecht sounded frail but characteristically coy about the source of his remarkable inventory of ancient vases, statues and frescoes, which now reside in museums around the globe.

“I have no idea of where an object was excavated,” he said. “It could have been excavated 100 years ago; it could have been excavated an hour ago.”

Mr. Hecht was born in Baltimore in 1919, heir to the Washington-area department store chain that bore his family name. He served in the Navy Reserve in World War II and then accepted a scholarship to study classics and archaeology at the American Academy in Rome.

It was there that he began buying ancient art. At the time, ancient artifacts were sold openly to tourists in the city’s piazzas. But Mr. Hecht soon learned that his passion carried risks.