Antiquities trade
The legal antiquities trade abides by national regulations, allowing for extraction of artifacts for scientific study whilst maintaining archaeological and anthropological context.
[1][2][clarification needed] The illicit antiquities trade involves non-scientific extraction that ignores the archaeological and anthropological context from the artifacts.
Ancient port cities such as Alexandria, Rome and Athens served as important centers for the trade in art and other goods.
Artifacts are often those that have been discovered and unearthed at archeological digs and then transported internationally through a middleman to often unsuspecting collectors, museums, antique dealers, and auction houses.
[10] It is believed by many archaeologists and cultural heritage lawyers that the demand created by circulation, marketing, and collectorship of ancient artifacts causes the continuous looting and destruction of archaeological sites around the world.
Examples of looting of archaeological sites for the black market: The protection of antiquities necessitates the formulation and implementation of comprehensive public policies.
These policies address issues such as provenance, looting prevention, and repatriation, ensuring the ethical circulation of historical artifacts.
There has been a growing effort to repatriate artifacts illicitly obtained and traded on the international market and return them to their countries of origin and preserve their cultural value.
In July 2023, a repatriation ceremony was held at the Indian Consulate in New York City to celebrate the handing over of 105 trafficked antiquities to India.
[20][21] The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report describing some of the United States’ cultural property protection efforts.
[22] In 2022 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) began publishing a series of articles about antiquities trafficking as part of the Hidden Treasures project.
[23] In a joint investigation with The Indian Express, the ICIJ published a list of more than 1000 cultural heritage objects linked to antiquities trafficker Subhash Kapoor.
[27] [28] The revelations in these and other investigative reports caused museums and collectors in several countries to relinquish looted art and to hire provenance researchers.
in order to stop its "seizure in place" of a bronze statue that had been looted from Turkey, known as "The Emperor as Philosopher, probably Marcus Aurelius (reigned AD 161-180)c. 180-200" or "Draped Male Figure".
