Image caption, BBC News Arabic wentto Roma Numismatics to capture images of an Alexander decadrachm coin that was put up for sale By Sarah Saey & the BBC Arabic Investigations group BBC News Arabic A British auctioneer who was at the centre of a BBC examination has pleaded guilty at a New York court to a series of charges in connection with illegal sales of unusual ancient coins. Richard Beale, director of London-based auction home Roma Numismatics, confessed 2 counts of conspiracy and 3 counts of criminal belongings of taken home, court files program. He was implicated of falsifying the provenance of the most costly coin ever auctioned – the gold Eid Mar, which brought $4.19m (£3.29m) in 2020 – and an ancient silver Sicily Naxos Coin, which offered at the exactsame time for $292,000. He has likewise confessed to falsifying the provenance of a number of silver Alexander the Great decadrachms from the “Gaza Hoard”, which were offered by Roma Numismatics and whose suspicious origin was brought to light by a BBC News Arabic documentary in2020 The examination recorded how, 3 years earlier, anglers in the Palestinian area had found lots of the coins, which date back to the 4th Century BC. Soon after the coins were discovered, they vanished. “They are in the hands of individuals who wear’t understand what these [coins] are, why they are here and what they represent for our nation. It’s really agonizing,” Fadel Alatol, a regional archaeologist who had recognized the coins discovered by the anglers priorto they were mostlikely offered on, informed the BBC in2019 Image caption, In Alexander the Great’s time, Blakhiya (Anthedon) in Gaza was the primary trading port in the south-east Mediterranean Before the Gaza discovery, just 20 Alexander decadrachms were recognized to be in presence. A coupleof months lateron, the exactsame type of coins began to appear for sale at auction homes around the world. In September 2017, one Alexander decadrachm offered for £100,000 (
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