Leonardo Patterson
Leonardo Augustus Patterson (15 April 1942 – 11 February 2025) was a Costa Rican-born antiques dealer who specialized in Pre-Columbian artefacts. Many items he sold were suspected to be fake, and he was later convicted of dealing fake artefacts in the United States and in Germany.
He was born in Limón, Costa Rica, to Jamaican parents and grew up in Cahuita. He trained as a jeweller and then worked as an intermediary in the antiquities trade, becoming an international dealer and collector. His major dealings in New York happened in the 1960s and 1970s, when rules on the trade were looser.
Over time export controls tightened. In 1983 UNESCO adopted a convention on illegal export of cultural property. In 1980 Patterson was involved in a large Australian tax avoidance scheme connected to unprovenanced Mesoamerican artefacts donated to the National Gallery of Victoria.
In 1984 the FBI charged him with trying to sell a fake Maya fresco; he was convicted and given probation. In 1985 he was convicted of importing the eggs of endangered sea turtles into the United States and received probation.
In 1995 he was appointed cultural attaché to the United Nations, but he resigned after questions about his past. He then spent more time in Europe, especially Germany. He faced several legal cases, including the return of items to Mexico and Peru, such as a gold Moche headdress in the shape of an octopus recovered with the help of Michel van Rijn.
In a 2015 German trial, he was found guilty of dealing fake artefacts, fined US$40,000 and given house arrest.
Patterson said he had thirteen children from five women. He died on 11 February 2025 in Bautzen, Saxony, Germany, at the age of 82.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:30 (CET).