The US ICE are not shy of trumpeting their success combating antiquity trafficking. It would therefore be very useful if they could publish the figures for the number of apprehensions of smugglers of antiquities from Latin America since they began their protection programme with a series of emergency orders beginning in 1990. How many people for example have sat in jail since the beginning of this programme due to the efforts of US investigators? How many looters have been stopped?
Today on EBay alone there are 47 artefacts on sale from Peru, Bolivia, El Slavador and Guatemala being offered by those sellers based in the USA. As far as I can see, none of them have any reference to collecting history and MOU compliance. There are an additional six on V-Coins (sic) and larger numbers being offered by a number of US-based antiquities and 'tribal art' dealers from Florida to Seatle. So how many such artefacts with no MOU compliance are sold in the US annually and where did they all come from? How many "old collections" can there have been?
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