For at least half a century it has been believed, and repeated, that the buying and selling of illegal artifacts was in the top three most illicit trades in the modern world. However, new research demonstrates that this claim is “unfounded,” and that it’s causing damage to communities around the globe.
Since the 1970s we, the public, have been told by global institutions that in the top three of the most illicit trades every year, alongside drugs and human and animal trafficking, is the selling of illegal artifacts and cultural objects . This, it turns out, is a long running unsubstantiated claim, and the false belief is hurting people.
According to a new study in the Cambridge publication Antiquity, the idea that the illicit antiquities trade now comes in as the number three largest illicit trade in the world, “is completely unfounded.” And furthermore, such an “uncritical acceptance of the factoid has the potential “to misdirect policy and make it harder to combat the trade of illegal artifacts.”
Illicitly traded statue seized by the US Department of Homeland Security HSI. ( US Homeland Security Investigations/ Antiquity Publications Ltd )
Chaos Resulting From Confusion
Before we look at the findings of the new study, let’s first attempt to determine the value of the world’s illicit trade of artifacts and cultural objects. As you will see, this is a quite impossible task. According to a July 2023 article in The National News , the global sales of art and antiquities…
