Leonardo Pattersonpaijoga, who rose improbably from rural poverty in Costa Rica to the towering heights of the global antiquities market, despite accusations that he trafficked in fake and stolen artifacts — and who fell precipitously when those accusations proved to be true — died on Feb. 11 in Bautzen, a city in northeastern Germany. He was 82.

His death, which had not been previously reported, was confirmed by the authorities in Bautzen. They did not provide an exact location or a cause of death.

The market for Latin American antiquities took off in the 1960s, enabled by an almost complete lack of laws preventing the often wholesale looting of pre-Columbian sites. Carvings, headdresses and jewelry that had sat for centuries in forgotten tombs and temples suddenly flooded galleries in New York, London and Paris.

Mr. Patterson was uniquely positioned to ride the wave. He said he never learned to read, but what he lacked in book learning he made up for in street smarts. First in Miami and then in New York, he developed a reputation for always having rare, beautiful items, at a time when owning an authentic Olmec stone head was the height of Manhattan chic.

agente777ImageA fragment of a mural from Mr. Patterson’s collection. “He aided and abetted a great degree of looting,” one archaeology consultant said.Credit...Agencia el Universal, via Associated Press

“In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, when he was very active, nobody really cared,” Arthur Brand, an art detective who later testified against Mr. Patterson in court, said in an interview. “Museums, auction houses, everybody looked the other way.”

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9x999 slots (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw" decoding="async" loading="lazy">Campos-Pons, in blue, speaks to the “angels” before the beginning of the march at Harlem Art Park on 120th Street.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York TimesImageThe procession stopped at multiple sites in Harlem and featured poetry readings, a musical performance and speeches about the history of the area especially its ties to Black, Cuban and Afro-Cuban life.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times

In her welcoming remarks, Campos-Pons told the crowd that, rather than a protest, “this is a walk of love, a walk for hope, a walk for the future, a walk for people who precede us and for people who are not yet here.” Billed as a “Procession of Angels for Radical Love and Unity,” the event spans two mornings in September. Last Saturday’s route started at the Harlem Art Park, a cobblestone site on East 120th Street in the heart of a neighborhood home to African Americans and people from Puerto Rican, Mexican, Caribbean, and African diasporas. The second procession is on Sept. 20 and will begin in Central Park and end in Madison Square Park, in the wealthy Flatiron district.

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