Kim Kardashian Denies Buying 'Looted, Smuggled and Illegally Exported' Ancient Roman Statue

On today's installment of celebrity headlines that sound like a bizarre game of Mad-Libs, K9 Magazine cover model and reality star, Kim Kardashian has found herself at the center of a massive art-world controversy with alleged ties to the importation of an ancient Roman statue purportedly “looted, smuggled and illegally exported,” from Italy, according to new court documents. 

Known as "Fragment of Myron's Samian Athena," the marble and limestone statue, which dates back to the 1st or second century, A.D., and depicts the lower half of a figure wearing flowy robes, was reportedly seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in June 2016, according to the civil forfeiture claim filed in California on Friday. Allegedly addressed to “Kim Kardashian dba Noel Roberts Trust,” in Woodland Hills, California, the statue was purportedly part of a 40-item shipment of "Antiques & Modern Furniture & Decorations Objects," which was worth a total of roughly $745,000 and weighed approximately five tons, CNN reported, noting that the aforementioned trust “is an entity linked to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's US real estate purchases.”

The item was seized following conflicting information surrounding its origins, seemingly describing two different statues, one document claiming the item originated in Germany, while the other alleged it came from Italy. Amid the confusion, Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage sent an archeologist to the United States to assess the sculpture in question, who reportedly concluded that the item was constructed in a “classical Peplophoros style (early to mid-Roman Empire), which represents a copy of an original Greek sculpture.” Considering this appraisal, the Italian ministry is requesting that the American government ensure that “all efforts be made for the return of the ... statue to Italy,” the filing says. 

Despite these shocking claims, Kardashian's representative says that the star not only "never purchased this piece" but that "this is the first that she has learned of its existence."

"We believe that it may have been purchased using her name without authorization and because it was never received (and) she was unaware of the transaction," the star's representative explained to CNN via email. "We encourage an investigation and hope that it gets returned to the rightful owners."

So folks, if you're going to drop an absurd amount of money on the bottom half of a statue, make sure you know where it comes from. What is it with hunks of rock causing international incidents this week?

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