“Criminogenic collectables” Collectors are the real looters

Dr Donna Yates has just been awarded a €1.5 million European Research Council Starting Grant for the project: "Trafficking transformations: objects as agents in transnational criminal networks"

Donna’s 5 year project will explore the role that objects play within transnational criminal networks, exploring the broad question “can objects cause crimes?” Using methodologies for understanding the relationships between objects and people, and how networks form from these relationships, Yates and her team will follow the pathways of what they’ve termed “criminogenic collectables”: objects of desire and collecting that seem to, at times, inspire crime. Specifically, they will be looking at the movements of cultural objects, fossils, and collectable rare wildlife starting in the Americas, the South Pacific, and Africa. Donna’s team includes Prof Simon Mackenzie of the Trafficking Culture Project and Dr Annette Hübschle of the University of Cape Town.

I like that phrase, 'criminalogenic collectables'. the word 'coins' springs to mind. But is a broader sense the term I promote 'collection-Driven exploitation of the archaeological record' relates as it makes the link between the activity (digging holes in the archaeological record) and the object of desire. Congratulations Donna.