When the French historian, archaeologist, and researcher Morgan Belzic, of the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris embarked on a PhD thesis on the somewhat esoteric subject of Cyrenaican Funerary Sculptures, little did he know he would end up becoming a detective.

However Belzic’s studies have led him to follow a murky trail of transnational artefact crime, that stretches from the oil-rich but war torn streets and towns of Libya, via shady intermediaries including opportunistic gangsters, enterprising jihadis, and freelance grave robbers, all the way to the glittering art galleries of Paris and New York.

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