We would like to share with you the email of our colleagues in Bergen, Norway, head of department Asbjørn Engevik and Prof. Knut Andreas Bergsvik, informing about a burglary at the University Museum of Bergen: It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that there has been a burglary at the University…
By Neil Brodie, Policy Brief No. 3, July 2017, from The Antiquities Coalition. Illicit antiquities, some pilfered from war zones where jihadist groups operate, are increasingly finding their way online where they are being snapped up by unknowing buyers and further driving the rampant plunder of archaeological sites. These internet sales are spurring a vicious…
For decades it was proudly displayed in the Greco-Roman galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 2,300-year-old, vividly painted vase that depicts Dionysus, god of the grape harvest, riding in a cart pulled by a satyr. Today it sits in an evidence room at the district attorney’s office in Manhattan after prosecutors quietly seized…
A leading antiquities dealer, H. Aboutaam, sued The Wall Street Journal on Monday (you can read the lawsuit here), asserting he had been damaged by an article in May that said he was under investigation for possibly trafficking in artifacts looted by ISIS. In the libel suit, the dealer, Hicham Aboutaam, said he has never…
Long-time dealers Ali and Hicham Aboutaam are under scrutiny, as authorities in multiple countries look into how Islamic State finances itself by trafficking in ancient objects. In early March, Swiss law-enforcement officials pulled over a vehicle on a Geneva road and, after a search, discovered an ancient oil lamp, people familiar with the matter say.…
The following article, copied from artsy.net, and written by John Zarobell, gives a very good impression about the functioning of freeports. Art is one of the most unregulated industries on the planet. Auction houses provide a space for exchange with prices determined in an open public forum, but many aspects of the auction house business…
On July 13th of 2017, the European Commission proposed new rules to stop imports in the Union of cultural goods illicitly exported from their country of origin (see the press release). Cultural goods are items of which countries consider that they have great artistic, historical or archaeological value and which belong to the country’s cultural…
The new issue of the International Journal of Cultural Property is available now, with contributions discussing deaccession, the status of fauna as cultural property, the role Sotheby’s has played in the collection of Maya antiquities, the fascinating case of the Buddhist Mummy, and other contributions.
Bulgarian officials said Friday they had recovered over 5,600 smuggled antiquities and arrested 22 members of two international smuggling rings in a joint operation with Turkey and France. A tip-off by the Bulgarian services eighteen months ago has led to the dismantling of “two international organized crime groups with members of different nationalities engaged in…
A Swedish academic who bought a rare antique Italian manuscript online from a university student in Bologna has helped police uncover a trove of stolen artwork and books. When his online purchase arrived from Italy to Sweden, the perspicacious professor from Lund University noticed a small antique ink stamp from the “Royal Library of Turin”…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 