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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJHyFwTApbbMfOusAalBgcYzTKMiw0AV-Wr1inZGw_XHGcMvC4UpD4UEEUyQdnWfxXYTUjkbTVlsEQGjAK1iCPD2pPdWM2lfg1yRPPJGvVaMwdcDSSiCVZeJwtEijojuuCs7LXF5sy_I/s400/artcrime.png)
In a post on the Smart Planet blog, journalist
Melanie Kaplan asks rhetorically "
What is the third highest grossing criminal trade?" although I do not generally like seeing the looting of archaeological sites for collectables as a genuine part of the art trade, the opportunity to use an attention-grabbing thougfht-provoking headline seems too good to forego.
Art crimes make up the third most costly criminal area in the United States ($6 billion), just behind the drug and arms trades, according to the National Museum of Crime & Punishment in Washington. This month, the museum has teamed up with the Association for Research into Crimes against Art to create a temporary exhibit about art crimes, called Uncovering the Dark Arts: Thieves, Forgers and Tomb Raiders.
I like that, the "dark arts", I suppose that makes the collectors and dealers of the indiscriminate antiquities market "the Dark Side". Kaplan also has a recent article on the
FBI’s Art Theft Program.
1 comment:
That startling, succint, and still-true statement shares a high degree of responsibility for getting me involved in anti-looting outreach/monitoring in the first place. "Dark Arts" does sum it up rather well...
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