Leonardo Patterson

Leonardo Patterson (born c. 1942) is a controversial antiquities dealer who specialises in Pre-Columbian artefacts. He was born to Jamaican parents and was raised in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Patterson started work as an apprentice jeweller, moving on to work as an antiquities middle-man as he gained exposure to a wider range of objects, and graduating to the role of international dealer and collector.

Patterson began to deal on a large scale in New York in the 1960s and 1970s when restrictions on the trade in antiquities were loose. In the 1970s, restrictions were tightened on the export of archaeological artefacts as more countries took an interest in what was happening to their cultural heritage and in 1983 the United States signed a UNESCO convention on the illegal export of cultural property. In 1980 Patterson was involved in a multi-million dollar Australian tax avoidance scheme concerning a collection of unprovenanced Mesoamerican antiquities that were donated to the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1984 Patterson was charged by the FBI with attempting to sell a fake Maya fresco to an art dealer and Patterson was sentenced to probation. In 1985 he was convicted of importing the eggs of endangered sea turtles into the United States. In 1995 he was appointed a cultural attaché to the United Nations, before questions about his past caused him to resign and he began to spend more time in Europe, particularly in Germany.

A number of legal cases have followed including the return of items to Mexico and Peru, notably a gold Moche headdress in the form of an octopus recovered with the help of Michel van Rijn.