LOS ANGELES, US - A RENOWNED expert in Asian antiquities has been indicted on fraud charges as part of an ongoing United States probe into a smuggling ring involving looted art, justice officials said.

Roxanna Brown, 62, the director of the South-east Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Friday for wire fraud, officials said in a statement on Monday.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Brown is accused of allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms that artificially inflated the value of antiquities donated to several museums in southern California for tax purposes, the statement said.

The charges come four months after federal agents raided four Southern California museums and the Silk Roads Gallery in Los Angeles.

According to an affidavit filed in connection with the raids, the owners of Silk Roads Gallery used Brown's signature repeatedly to falsify appraisal forms so that collectors could claim increased tax deductions on donated objects.

The affidavit revealed how one of the gallery owners told an undercover agent that items worth US$1,500 (S$2,700) were later appraised for just under US$5,000. -- AFP