The axe fell on Friday 3 February 2023 for Jean-Luc Martinez and Jean-François Charnier following the case of trafficking in antiquities at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed their indictment.

The former president of the Louvre and the former scientific director of the France Muséums agency are respectively suspected of "laundering and complicity in organised fraud", and of "facilitating false justification". The trafficking would have taken place between 2014 and 2018 and concerns seven Egyptian art objects worth €50m. They are said to come from looted archaeological sites but were covered up under false origins.

In November 2022, the public prosecutor in charge of the case had requested the cancellation of the indictment of Jean-Luc Martinez and Jean-François Charnier during a hearing. This was therefore effectively refuted.