The Illicit Traffic in Plundered Antiquities

Art crime: a brief introduction

“…John Conklin's Art Crime [31], drawing much-needed criminological attention to crimes involving art and antiquities, provided a broad but comprehensive overview of the intersection where art and crime meet and served as one of the earliest criminological works focusing exclusively on criminal activities involving art. Focusing on the trade in illicitly-obtained antiquities, Alder and Polk [2,3] highlighted its similarities to and differences from other illicit enterprises. Building on the work of Alder and Polk, Mackenzie [61,62] examined the illicit antiquities trade through the lens of white collar crime, interviewing antiquities dealers, collectors, and other "demand" end market stakeholders.…”

“…If an antiquity were looted and illegally exported, for example, and then purchased in good faith in a civil country, then the good faith purchase is favored and the object is no longer legally construed as stolen [20]. Because of this criminogenic asymmetry, smugglers move antiquities through civil countries in order to secure good title to an antiquity and, consequently, legal export documentation which will allow the object to circulate on the antiquities market [2,3]. landscape has meant that the world's archaeological heritage is disappearing at an astonishing pace [17,20,22,51,64,70,74].…”

On ‘Organized Crime’ in the illicit antiquities trade: moving beyond the definitional debate

“…), weak law enforcement and/or weak political infrastructure, and other corrupt practices are also typical throughout the entirety of the trafficking process from source to market end (Mackenzie 2009; Sandage 2009). In source, transit, and market countries, official corruption is often both accommodating and frequent, especially when the items are not portable and necessitate the use of heavy machinery (for digging and/or removal), forged export documents, or freight shipping methods (Alder and Polk 2005:100–103; Mackenzie 2009:50) 2…”

“…Most recently-surfaced antiquities on the market have either 1) no find-spot documentation or ownership history, or 2) falsified or vague and unverifiable ownership history, thereby disguising the illicit item under a cloak of licitness and allowing entry into the open market (Alder and Polk 2005; Brodie 2002, 2009a, b, 2011:409). To further complicate matters, the sale of licitly -obtained antiquities is legal (Alder and Polk 2002; Alder et al 2009:126), giving the impression that the trade is altogether a completely licit one.…”

“…The illicit antiquities trade is a dynamic transnational phenomenon (Alder and Polk 2005), at once both global and local — sometimes referred to as ‘glocal’ (Proulx 2010) having grown in complexity and cultural significance over the last several decades. Transnational crimes, in general, have become more complex due to the processes and effects of globalization and the illicit antiquities trade is no exception to the rule (Bowman 2008:225).…”