The following originally appeared as an online exclusive on the W&M Alumni Magazine website. – Ed.
As a biology major at William & Mary, Karen Tomlinson “KT” Newton ’77 never imagined herself investigating a major art crime case involving 2,000-year-old terracotta sculptures from China.
Now, after retiring following a 27-year-career as an assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, she is one of the foremost experts in cultural property law and acquisition.
One of her most memorable cases involved a man who broke into a closed exhibition hall where some of China’s Terracotta Warriors were on loan to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The warriors are a collection of 8,000 statues created to guard the grave of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. After the intruder broke off the thumb of one of the warriors, a massive investigation was launched to retrieve the missing digit. The case caused a diplomatic rift with China, and Newton was determined to pursue a just outcome in the case.
The thumb was ultimately found by the FBI in a desk drawer at the suspect’s home. After an initial mistrial, the suspect accepted a plea deal for a guilty charge of trafficking in interstate commerce in archaeological resources, which was illegal under state law.
“It was a serious incident for the Franklin Institute, for the Chinese and for cultural heritage,” she says. “There needed to be a conviction for what he did.”
After an accomplished career and dozens of art crime cases prosecuted, Newton has shifted her focus to the private sector. In July 2024, she became a founding partner of Argus Cultural Property Consultants. In this new endeavor, she and her co-partners, including several former FBI Art Crime Team special agents, combine legal expertise and field experience to assist clients in preserving and protecting priceless art and antiques.
“I thought, ‘I’m not going to get this kind of opportunity again to continue to do the work that I really love.’ Argus has given all of us that opportunity,” she says. “It’s wonderful being in the beginning parts of this company. We’re starting to grow it together.”
Following academic passions
Newton, who is originally from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, first found herself immersed in cultural history during a visit to Colonial Williamsburg when she was around 12 or 13 years old. Her love of the area stuck with her, and she applied to William & Mary early decision.
During her time at W&M, Newton took numerous art history classes and even contemplated changing her major. After deciding against it due to her parents’ concern that she wouldn’t get a job, she found other ways to explore her passions for art and culture.
“There was a program called Project Plus, housed within the Botetourt Complex, and you applied to get in. Every year, Project Plus had a theme. The year I was there, it was medieval and Renaissance men and women,” she says. “We had seminars and activities related to the theme for the year. I was truly fortunate that I got accepted into that program and for the people that I met.”
She added that William & Mary’s liberal arts curriculum allowed her to hone her academic passions for art history without declaring that field as a major.
“I learned you could take a class because you loved it, even if you may not use it in your career,” she says.
Following graduation, her path took her across the United States. She worked in Philadelphia doing medical research, then moved to Chicago to work for United Airlines as a systems analyst. After taking a psychological aptitude test, she applied to law school. She remembers the test administrator telling her, “If there’s any way you can get to law school, you should go. Chances are you’re going to love it, and chances are you’ll be pretty good at it.”
After graduating first in her class from Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law, Newton clerked for a federal Court of Appeals judge in New York City and was employed in the litigation department of a large law firm in Philadelphia, doing litigation work that included aviation law. It was a W&M connection that ultimately helped her land the job in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“I applied to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, and was very fortunate that someone that I knew from William & Mary, the older sister of one of my sorority sisters, was with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” she says. “I called her to say, ‘I want to apply. I know this is really difficult to get in, but what should I do?’ She helped me get the first interview. I stayed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for 27 years.”
Recovering stolen treasures
There, she worked on the corruption, economic crimes and narcotics teams before being designated as the dedicated assistant U.S. attorney for prosecuting art crimes in Philadelphia. In this role, she worked in tandem with the FBI Art Crime Team covering the Philadelphia area and five surrounding counties. This set the stage for many of the cases she would take on during her career and into retirement.
When the FBI Art Crime Team received information about a theft or other crime, agents would open a case file and consult Newton if they determined an investigation should proceed. She would then work with the agents to collect evidence and conduct interviews to determine if a case could be brought , and she would eventually lead the case if it ended up in court. If a case progressed to trial and conviction, or a defendant entered a guilty plea, she would recommend appropriate sentences to the court. She also provided legal training and advice on cultural property law to law enforcement agents across the country and to foreign governments.
One early case from Newton’s work as an assistant U.S. attorney has stuck with her. In 1988, Belgian artist Agnes Lorca sent various canvases to a gallery for an exhibition in the U.S. The exhibition never happened and the gallery never returned her paintings. When she died in 1997, her artwork was still lost, but a Belgian police officer specializing in art crimes filed a request to relaunch the investigation and recover the paintings in 2004 after the paintings had been found on an eBay auction.
Ceremony marking the return of stolen paintings
It took a number of years to recover the paintings, but, in 2014, after the U.S. Attorney’s Office had a designated prosecutor for the job, Newton completed the legal work to ensure the paintings were returned to Belgium through the proper diplomatic channels. Lorca’s six paintings were returned to her family during a ceremony in the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. As part of the investigation, Newton discovered that Lorca’s husband and daughter were the subjects of many of her paintings. She said meeting them at the embassy was one of the high points of her career.
“Returning these items was very personal for this family,” she says. “It was my very first art crime case, and it was one of the best things I got to do for the 12 years that I worked with the Art Crime Team. It was a wonderful, incredible feeling.”
Newton, who is a member of William & Mary’s philanthropic, engagement and leadership-focused Society of 1918, returned to Williamsburg in September for W&M Women’s Weekend, where she was a featured speaker and recounted her career in combating art theft. She said she felt honored to be given the opportunity to share her career, but was also moved by the stories of the other women she met.
“I got to reconnect with women that I knew from when I was at William & Mary. I am just so impressed by the other women that I just met at the weekend who are willing to come up and say, ‘I really liked what you said,’ or just wanted to introduce themselves and have conversations,” she says. “It was a fabulous time where I think everybody just wanted to learn and share experiences with each other. I was really honored to be part of it.”
As part of her work with Argus, she publishes a monthly blog titled “Still Missing,” where she highlights art and other cultural property that remain unrecovered. She is also working on a book about a major case she worked on involving antique firearms that were stolen from museums across the East Coast. The extended investigation led to the return of over 45 items to 16 different museums.
“I want people to know that what’s being taken is cultural heritage, whether it’s ours or not. It’s taking the ability away from all of us to see and appreciate that item because somebody thought they should have it,” she says.
While she is still in the early stages of drafting the book, Newton hopes that its publication, along with her work at Argus, will add to public knowledge about the importance of art crime prosecution and preserving cultural property.
“I’d like to be able to have someone say that I contributed to seeing justice being done and that I contributed in making sure that cultural heritage is available to people,” she says. “I am able to give information, insight and excitement about cultural property to people through what I do today, and I want to be able to talk to people about it.”