Antiquities Smuggling in the Real and Virtual World
This book examines the illicit trade in antiquities, a trade which has increased massively since the destruction and looting of ancient Near Eastern sites in the Middle East. Focusing on the distribution networks for looted antiquities, especially the routes to the West, the book considers the dealers and facilitators who are key in getting the objects to market, explores the methods used that include online marketplaces and social media sites, analyses demand and buyers, revealing that objects are often available at very affordable prices. It outlines the efforts of law enforcement agencies, including the military, and legal systems to contain the trade. Throughout, the book highlights the difficulties of putting a stop to this illicit trade, particularly in a conflict region.
Layla Hashemi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center at George Mason University, Washington, DC.
Louise Shelley is the Hirst Chair, Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government and Director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center at George Mason University, Washington, DC.
Routledge Transnational Crime and Corruption
Published in association with the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, USA
Organized Crime and Corruption in Georgia
Edited by Louise Shelley, Erik Scott and Anthony Latta
Russias Battle with Crime, Corruption and Terrorism
Edited by Robert W. Orttung and Anthony Latta
Human Trafficking and Human Security
Edited by Anna Jonsson
Irregular Migration from the Former Soviet Union to the United States
Saltanat Liebert
Human Security, Transnational Crime and Human Trafficking
Asian and Western perspectives
Edited by Shiro Okubo and Louise Shelley
Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations
The commodification of illicit flows
Edited by Ato Quayson and Antonela Arhin
Environmental Crime and Corruption in Russia
Federal and regional perspectives
Edited by Sally Stoecker and Ramziy Shakirova
Disengaging from Terrorism Lessons from the Turkish Penitents
Kamil Yilmaz
The Political Economy of Corporate Raiding in Russia
Ararat Osipian
Corruption and the Russian Economy
How Administrative Corruption Undermines Entrepreneurship and Economic Opportunities
Yulia Krylova
Antiquities Smuggling in the Real and Virtual World
Edited by Layla Hashemi and Louise Shelley
First published 2022
by Routledge
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2022 selection and editorial matter, Layla Hashemi and Louise Shelley; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Layla Hashemi and Louise Shelley to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-0-367-90201-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-17128-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-02304-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003023043
Louise Shelley, Ph.D.Founder and Director, Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center. Dr. Louise Shelley is the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair and a University Professor at George Mason University. She is in the Schar School of Policy and Government and directs the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) that she founded. She is a leading expert on the relationships between terrorism, organized crime and corruption, as well as human trafficking, transnational crime and terrorism, with a particular focus on the former Soviet Union. She also specializes in illicit financial flows and money laundering. She was an inaugural Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, and her newest book, Dark Commerce, on illicit trade and sustainability was released this year by Princeton University Press.
Neil Brodie, Ph.D.Senior Research Fellow, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Dr. Brodie is based at the Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa project at the University of Oxford. Over the past twenty years, he has written some of the most important works on the illicit antiquities trade, including studies of the trafficking of Iraqi and Syrian antiquities and the operation of the Internet and auction markets in selling smuggled antiquities. Dr. Brodie is networked to the major stakeholder communities involved in this issue.
Patty Gerstenblith, J.D., Ph.D.Distinguished Research Professor at DePaul University College of Law. Dr. Gerstenblith is a respected expert on antiquities and the law, as well as Director of DePauls Center in Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law and member of the Steering Group of the American Bar Associations International Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee. She is the founding president of the Lawyers Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation. In 2011 she was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the U.S. State Departments Cultural Property Advisory Committee to which she had previously been appointed by President Bill Clinton. The fourth edition of her casebook, Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law, was published in 2019. She received her J.D. from Northwestern University and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Before joining DePaul, she served as a clerk to the Honorable Richard D. Cudahy of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ira Spar, Ph.D.Professor of Ancient Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Spar is an ancient historian and Assyriologist, an expert on the reading and interpretation of Babylonian and Sumerian cuneiform texts. For many years he was the Research Assyriologist in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where he edited and published the Museums complete collection of cuneiform texts.
Antonietta Catanzariti, Ph.D.Scholar and Assistant Curator for Ancient and Near Eastern Art, Freer Sackler Galleries. Dr. Catanzariti is the Robert and Arlene Kogod Secretarial Scholar and Assistant Curator for the ancient Near East, at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonians National Museum of Asian Art. She is a specialist in the archaeology and art of the ancient Near East and has performed extensive archaeological field work in the region, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and most recently, in Iraqi Kurdistan where she is currently running an excavation project in the Qara Dagh district. She writes and lectures on topics related to her research in the field and on the study of ancient forms of interactions and trade.
