Escalating the War on Looting'

Celestine Bohlen, 'Escalating the War on Looting', New York Times March 11, 2016:

Like the wars themselves, the looting of antiquities in Syria and other conflict zones in the Middle East is proving virtually impossible to stop, despite the best efforts of a host of international agencies, cultural organizations and dogged independent researchers. As the pillaging continues in a region rich in layers of ancient civilizations, the international community is focusing on the marketplace, doing what it can to scare off demand in hopes that supply will shrink. “There wouldn’t be any looting if there wasn’t money to be made,” said Kathryn Walker Tubb, a lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. In the past few years, the effort to intercept the illicit trade has intensified.

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