Roxanna Maude Brown (May 2, 1946 – May 14, 2008) was a prominent authority onSoutheast Asianceramics and director of theBangkok University'sSoutheast Asian Ceramics Museum.[1][2] Her research of Ming Dynasty ceramics greatly improved knowledge of trade in China and surrounding areas. She also often assisted the US government in investigating art smuggling, but she herself was implicated in art fraud in 2008. She was arrested for wire fraud and died in prison several days later. After facing a medical malpractice suit, the Federal Bureau of Prisons settled with her family in 2009.
Brown was born on a farm inIllinois, United States, and received a bachelor's degree fromColumbia University in 1968. She then became a journalist inSouth Vietnam, where her brother was serving in the U.S. Army during theVietnam War. Interested in Asian art, she earned a master's degree fromUniversity of Singapore in 1973. She married and made her home in Bangkok, but she was run over and nearly killed in a traffic accident in the 1980s, which cost her a leg and seriously damaged her hearing. Nevertheless, in 2004, she received a Ph.D. fromUCLA, working on the so-calledMing Gap, a 300-year interval when China blocked exports of ceramics. A production boom across Southeast Asia resulted. Brown's analysis of ceramics recovered from shipwrecks of the period "revolutionized the understanding of trade patterns in the region," according to colleagues cited in theLos Angeles Times.[3][4]
While employed as a curator byBangkok University, she became involved in the investigation of the smuggling of art objects fromThailand to the United States, particularly from theBan Chiang cultural tradition, assisting U.S. government agents. However, she was herself implicated in the possible false authentication of stolen objects, based on material found during January 2008 raids on theLos Angeles County Museum of Art, thePacific Asia Museum inPasadena, California, theBowers Museum inSanta Ana, California, and theMingei International Museum inSan Diego. Emails and records were discovered that alleged Brown had offered to sell Thai antiquities to the smuggling ring. She was also accused of signing false appraisals of antiquities, enabling them to be sold for an inflated price. Brown was arrested on May 9, 2008, for allegedwire fraud when she arrived in the United States to deliver a lecture at an Asian art symposium at theUniversity of Washington.[5] In her initial interview, Brown denied selling any objects or providing false appraisals. When presented with evidence, Brown said she had forgotten that she had been paid $14,000 payment for antiquities, and admitted signing blank appraisals.[6]
She was found dead in her cell at theFederal Detention Center in SeaTac on May 14.[7] The charge was dropped immediately after her death at the facility. The question of her actual involvement in the smuggling ring, the justification for her arrest, and her lack of medical attention after it, was the subject of a series of articles in theLos Angeles Times.[3][6][8]
A medical malpractice lawsuit was filed by her son, Taweesin (Jaime) Ngerntongdee, after it was determined that Brown had died ofperitonitis caused by aperforated ulcer.[5] The suit claimed she had suffered stomach problems in the detention center and that other inmates took her to a shower after a guard would not respond when she vomited something that "smelled like excrement." When Brown requested for help after the 10 p.m.lockdown on May 13, the guard told her she would have to wait until the morning for medical attention, according to the suit.[6] Detention center officials acknowledged there was no overnight medical staff on duty and took the case tomediation. The federal governmentsettled the case for $880,000 in July 2009. Attorney Tim Ford stated part of the settlement stipulated that Brown's death would be investigated by theFederal Bureau of Prisons.[5]
She was author of a number of academic books on Southeast Asian ceramics. Among the ones that established her early reputation are:
Among her later works are:
