Ex-Art Dealer Gets Prison for Smuggling
A former Santa Barbara art dealer was sentenced in Los Angeles to six months in prison Monday for smuggling pre-Columbian artifacts into the United States from Peru.
David R. Swetnam, 31, who now lives in Healdsburg in Sonoma County, admitted in May that he engaged in illegal smuggling by failing to properly declare the jewelry, ceramic vases and miniature stone mortars as artifacts in papers submitted to U.S. Customs officials.
Swetnam, who previously ran a gallery and art restoration business in Santa Barbara, pleaded guilty to three counts of receiving and causing the importation of smuggled goods in 1986 and 1987.
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