Looting and the Antiquities Market

The looting of archaeological sites became a significant problem after the Second World War. Archaeological sites had been exploited from the 18th century with varying degrees of emphasis on scientific recovery of artifacts. However, demand created by the postwar growth of the international art market provided an impetus to supply more archaeological artifacts for the market, often through looting of sites, just as advances in scientific methodologies expanded the amount of contextual knowledge that could be recovered about the past through controlled excavation. As the losses inflicted on our ability to reconstruct all facets of the past became better understood, legal mechanisms developed to deter the trade in undocumented archaeological artifacts and the looting of archaeological sites. These legal mechanisms crystallized around the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The 1970 UNESCO Convention fostered a series of national actions, including ratification and implementation of the convention through domestic legislation. In the early 2000s, several market nations ratified the 1970 convention, ushering in an era in which this convention has served as the basic international legal instrument that attempts to curtail the trade in illegally obtained antiquities. The study of the trade in looted antiquities is prevalent in several disciplines, in addition to legal studies. Ethnographers and anthropologists study the mechanisms of the trade from the looting of the object from the ground to the desires of museums and private collectors to acquire such objects. Criminologists study the motivations of the criminal actors and the best methods for deterring criminal activity. Ethicists explore the ethical dimensions of acquisitions of undocumented archaeological artifacts, particularly by public institutions, and the morality of restitution. Economists theorize about ways that archaeological heritage can become an economically sustainable resource for local populations, thereby reducing the motivation to loot sites. Finally, the international restitution of looted archaeological objects has become a central issue in cultural diplomacy among nations and in relationships among the world’s museums and educational institutions. The contemporary trade in undocumented artifacts is not entirely divorced from the historical scourge brought about through armed conflict and military occupation. The looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad during the 2003 Gulf War, followed by the large-scale looting of sites throughout southern Iraq, the looting of sites in Syria and Egypt during the ongoing conflicts to obtain funds, and the dismemberment of Khmer temples in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period all attest to the pervasive nature of looting to supply archaeological artifacts for sale on the international art market.