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…
“Stolen Memory” is the investigation that led to the creation of the first journalistic platform that collects massive data on illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts from Latin American countries. It is a project of Peruvian digital investigative journalism site Ojo Público, which invited four important media in the region to participate in a transnational and…
An exchange of arms and art is shown by a new reportage of Domenico Quirico, and was published today in La Stampa (so far available only in Italian). D. Quirico describes the allegedly close connections between ISIS and the ‘ndrangheta in Calabria/Italy, and how the port of Gioia Taura acts as a hub for archaeological…
In the National Museum of Damascus are antique books of black magic or witchcraft listing curses and spells designed to dumbfound or destroy whatever enemy is targeted by the user. Alongside these tattered works lie a bible made out of copper, religious works from the Crusader period and, elsewhere in the museum, a striking stone…
In a world scarred by recurrent violence against people and their heritage, the nine-year prison sentence handed down to Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, who helped to destroy shrines in Timbuktu, marks a new and welcome recognition that deliberate cultural destruction is a war crime. It is the first international trial to focus exclusively on crimes against…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 