US Indiscriminate antiquities Trade with Turkey and Egypt Worth Lots

This stolen or looted mummy hand, dating to the eighth century B.C.,
was brought into the United States from Egypt.

Credit: John Denmark/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

About $50 million worth of artefacts and antiques were shipped from both Egypt and Turkey to the United States in 2016 — the highest annual value from each of those countries in at least 20 years, according to U.S. Census Bureau documents. The artifacts, totaling about $100 million between the two countries, were imported "for consumption" and not for temporary display in a museum, the documents say (Owen Jarus, '$100 Million in Artifacts Shipped from Egypt and Turkey to US in 2016' Live Science March 21, 2017).

Most of the artifacts were shipped to New York City, where numerous antiquities dealers, auction houses and art galleries are based. It can be difficult to determine whether a shipment of artifacts was recently looted, law-enforcement officials told Live Science.
In addition, the actual resale value of the shipments may be higher, because the values seen in the documents are simply those that importers declared, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. Audits are occasionally conducted on shipments, but the spokesperson declined to say how often they occur. [See Photos of the Artifacts from Egypt and Turkey]

The article details more slimeball trade in human body parts. Trump's America or not, portableised pieces of human corpseshave no place in private 'ancient art' collections. These dealers and the lobbyists who support them need locking up.