ILLICID: German Project to Study Illicit trafficking in Cultural Property from Middle East

In Germany a transdisciplinary research project with a specific focus on illicit trafficking in Cultural Property from Iraq and Syria has been inaugurated. The ILLICID Project was launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and will broadly cooperate with other ministries and federal entities with a mandate on the protection of cultural heritage. It is being directed by Prof. Dr. Markus Hilgert, a professor of ancient Near-Eastern studies and Director of the Vorderasiatisches Museum im Pergamonmuseum - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (here,  here, and here). ILLICID has partners in customs and law enforcement, the German Federal Foreign Office, Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, German Commission for UNESCO and ICOM. 

With the central aim of knowledge sharing between several national and international institutions, this explorative programme envisages  systematically gathering knowledge from academia and non-academic stakeholders. The plan is to develop new analytical instruments and research approaches to better identify trafficking networks and processes and to better understand financial flows in the field of organized crime and terrorism, as well as to develop a digital object depository to be used by law enforcement and customs authorities.

The project is predicated on the recognition of the need to identify and develop criminological methods for in-depth analysis of illicit trafficking. We need more information on object types, turnover, networks, and various modus operandi of the no-questions-asked antiquities trade. The project will assess the various dimensions of money laundering and financing of militant groups that may be being derived from heritage trafficking.

This project will run until 2018 and will be followed by the publication of a report and recommendations. Let us see what it comes up with and whether it can penetrate the secretive no-questions-asked global antiquities market.