Security guards called police after they saw the 31-year-old tourist use his foot to dig out a chip of marble from the floor of Pompeii’s House of the Small Fountain dating from the first century AD. In May last year, the United States returned to Italy three frescoes taken from Pompeii nearly 60 years ago…
British auction houses have been warned against selling looted Latin American artefacts after a 500 year-old indigenous sculpture, stolen from Colombia, was discovered and returned to its home. read more …well: maybe sell no looted cultural heritage at all?!
Italy’s art historians, firefighters and special police scamble to rescue quake-stricken Amatrice’s heritage. The central Italian town of Amatrice is still a mess of toppled buildings and rubble. Buried there are centuries worth of art and artifacts. read more
In the Middle East and North Africa, terrorist organizations target ancient relics and sites for loot to finance their operations. In Latin America, drug cartels and other organized crime groups use the antiquities black market to launder money. Across the West, looted artifacts appear in private collections and museums. In the past year, a coordinated…
The French/German TV station ARTE has several documentaries about the black market of antiquities and art online. Have a look at the documentaries either in German or French!
“Prevention”, “cooperation”, and “awareness raising” are the terms that one hears when it comes to preventing illicit trafficking in cultural property. The challenges are many: thefts in museums, public and private spaces, and archaeological sites are ongoing; conflicts ravaging the Middle East are leading to a surge in looting and trafficking; and circulation and sale…
Excavations conducted in the absence of a supervising archaeologist and without proper recording of items, as well as issuing entry tickets by off-duty staff, are among the findings of a probe by the Audit Service into Paphos excavation sites, auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides said in a letter to the Antiquities Department director end of september.…
An event at the U.N. with French President Francois Holland unveiled his country’s plan for preserving the cultural heritage of religious minorities. read more
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 