AntiquitiesCoalition @CombatLootingand not that much better in North America either.
"The chances of someone being seized, stopped and prosecuted [for illicit antiquities] are almost zero anywhere in Europe"
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A blog commenting on various aspects of the private collecting and trade in archaeological artefacts today and their effect on the archaeological record.
AntiquitiesCoalition @CombatLootingand not that much better in North America either.
"The chances of someone being seized, stopped and prosecuted [for illicit antiquities] are almost zero anywhere in Europe"
2 comments:
The US has been fighting to keep drugs out of the country for years and years and can't do it. How do you expect them to keep out illicit antiquities? Where the is demand there will always be a way. I can't really fathom how increasingly difficult it must be to find this stuff. For every advance in technology to discover the illicit items, the same advancement is made by the smugglers.
We cant, and probably never will, be able to take away he demand for drugs in the USA.
Maybe reducing the demand for antiquities involves a smaller pool of offenders to convince and less (although similar I would say) addictive aspects as compared to the drug issue.
That is what we have to hope becaus basically the US simply can't keep illicit anything from crossing the border.
But then, in these dangerous times, one wonders just what else gets through border 'controls' if we cannot detect and stop drugs, antiquities, terrorists, their weapons etc etc. Radioactive isotopes for dirty bombs do not take up much space either. Instead of just wringing our hands and saying 'what can we do?", we need to take a closer look just how it is the authorities do "protect" us by controlling what passes from one country to the next.
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