Michel van Rijn
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Michel van Rijn is a Dutch art dealer who runs an online news service on his website that purports to inform the world about art theft, the underside of the art world and the trade in looted antiquities. His website has been removed from the index of the search engine Google following legal action taken by some of the dealers that he has accused.
The content of his site is said to be of questionable accuracy, some of which could be attributed to his informants being of questionable morality.In addition, it has been said that he accuses dealers of "misconduct" just to extort money from them in return for his "shutting up".
van Rijn claims to have played a role in the discovery of the Gospel of Judas, and claims that he worked with Scotland Yard to unmask some art world rogues. He has received various death threats, for instance in connection with the Aydin Dikmen case.
On the 19th of October, 2006,because of potential libel and defamation liabilities van Rijn stated that he would discontinue his website. He claimed that the reason for the shutdown was because of death threats to his children. [1].
The website was reinstated on October 21st, 2006 at its new location, http://www.michelvanrijn.nl/, contradicting his previous official statement.
