Roissy Again and the Thai Connection

The Financial Times reports on moves to tighten up the antiquities market to stop it becoming a tool for the financing of terrorist activity  (Jim Brunsden, EU plans tough checks on imports of ancient artefacts', Financial Times 12 July 2017).

Brussels has been spurred to act by cases such as that of two bas-reliefs seized by officials at Roissy airport, Paris, last year. The reliefs, which are about 500 years old, were packed in a wooden crate labelled as containing decorative garden ornaments and were en route from the Lebanon to Thailand.

The case was discussed by me here scandal at Roissy. The place of Thailand as a destination used by exporters to 'launder' portable antiquities was mentioned recentyly in the June 23rd meeting of the Congressional subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance in the US House of Representatives.