18 - Trafficking Antiquities

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Antiquities are old objects of cultural heritage. They can be very valuable, and are often found in museums or private collections. There is still much cultural heritage buried under the ground around the world, or otherwise in situ as part of a temple or other heritage structure like a church. Items can be illegally removed from temples or gravesites in one country (the source country) and trafficked internationally for sale in another (the market country). Source countries for antiquities tend to be developing countries, whereas market countries are richer, developed nations. In other words, looted antiquities tend to move from the poor countries where they are found to the rich countries where the buyers are (Mackenzie, 2005; Polk, 2000). Many countries suffer this kind of looting. The most high profile cases of looting have been in countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Greece, China, and in South American countries such as Peru and some South-East Asian countries such as Cambodia and Thailand. Antiquities looting can destroy the archaeological context in which objects are found, diminishing our capacity to record knowledge about past civilizations. Looting and trafficking can also harm the objects themselves, and this is sometimes deliberate, such as when objects are cut or broken into pieces for ease of transport.

MEASUREMENT PROBLEMS

The trafficking of antiquities typically involves clandestine excavation or theft, smuggling in transit, and either private sale or mixing with objects in the legitimate market. It is therefore difficult to arrive at reliable estimates of the size of the illicit market. We do, however, have continuing evidence of sometimes widespread looting in source countries (Brodie, Doole, & Renfrew, 2001; Coggins, 1969), and case studies of specific types of objects have suggested that very high proportions of them have been looted (Gill & Chippindale, 1993). There are recent examples of researchers attempting to develop innovative methods to achieve greater accuracy in estimating the size of the problem, such as by using auction catalogues or import and export records.