Problems Mounting for the Kings’ McNall : Business: Magazine story alleges that owner of team has been involved in art smuggling.

King owner Bruce McNall’s troubles continue to mount, with a national magazine alleging in an upcoming story that he has been deeply involved in international art smuggling.

A story in the April issue of Vanity Fair quotes McNall as acknowledging he has for years broken export laws of Greece, Turkey, Italy and other Mediterranean countries designed to protect rare artifacts from being smuggled out.

The article by Vanity Fair contributing editor Bryan Burrough, co-author of the bestseller “Barbarians at the Gate,” calls McNall “one of the friendliest, most accessible, most down-to-earth art smugglers in the world.” The article also says McNall regularly dealt with Robert Hecht, whom Burrough describes as a reputed art smuggler.

Burrough also says that McNall-related companies have never been cited or sued or charged in any of those countries because he has returned artifacts when governments complain and also because of lax U.S. laws in the area.

In an interview with The Times, McNall said that “others do this every day.” He added that, “There’s a certain amount of truth of the things that happened in the past. I myself did very little of it.”

Burrough also alleged that McNall partnerships regularly sell “fresh” coins, or coins freshly dug up from the ground that are excavated and smuggled out illegally. Said McNall: “We’re not there when they’re digging it up. I’m not there. As long as you buy from a legitimate dealer, where they got it from, I have no idea. Things have been sold to every major museum in the world. Is there something wrong with them?”

The NHL declined comment on the article. McNall is the chairman of the NHL’s board of governors, arguably one of the most powerful positions in hockey.

Last week, The Times detailed a number of McNall’s recent business problems. They include a lawsuit alleging he defaulted on a bank loan, a court order obtained by a Hollywood studio attaching McNall assets and late payments on bills in his sports empire.

McNall is currently trying to sell a two-thirds stake in the Kings to telecommunications entrepreneur Jeffrey Sudikoff and a partner largely to help him pay off Bank of America, which had extended him up to $90 million in loans and credit. The Times also reported the bank recently moved the loan to a “special assets” unit that deals with loans that are of special concern to bank officials.

In interviews with The Times, McNall has downplayed his business problems, which stem from the soft coin market, a high debt load, losses from the Toronto Argonaut football team he controls and an inability to exploit the Kings’ popularity because of an unfavorable lease at the Forum.

In the Vanity Fair article, however, McNall is quoted as saying that the coin business “is finished. There may come the point when I go under. I can’t go on financing negative cash flow. With the coin business and the Kings both negative--it’s not going to happen today, or tomorrow, but I will go under. If something doesn’t change, I’m finished.”