Report calls art-treasure looting an international scandal

June 12, 2000
Web posted at: 12:05 PM EDT (1605 GMT)

LONDON (Reuters) -- Up to $3 billion of art treasures are looted every year around the world from Mali to Iraq, archaeologists said on Monday.

There is growing evidence that organized crime has muscled in on the trade with Miami a crossroads for laundering "dirty money" -- drugs pay for antiquities that are then sold on.

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The report by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research also accused London auction houses and dealers of selling looted antiquities from around the world, a charge forcefully denied by the art sales business.

"Modern-day looting is greater in scale than any carried out in the past," the report said. "Estimates of its worldwide extent vary from 150 million pounds ($226 million) up to 2 billion pounds a year."

Looting has become an international scandal in Mali with a recent survey showing that up to 45 percent of sites have been looted. "The history of Mali is quite literally disappearing from under the feet of its inhabitants," it said.

The report said looting in Iraq had escalated out of all control in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. "The number of Iraqi antiquities on sale in London and New York has increased dramatically," it said.

It said Buddhas in Cambodia had been decapitated with power saws and the illegal trade in fossil hunting stretched from Nebraska to the Gobi Desert.

Organized crime now finds the illicit trade a powerful magnet, the report claimed.

It cited the cases of Spanish police breaking up an art-for-cocaine ring and a smuggler's plane arriving in Colorado from Mexico with marijuana and pre-Columbian antiquities.

"Miami has become a crossroad for illicit antiquities -- from Ireland, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Greece -- precisely because, according to U.S. Customs, there is so much 'dirty money' swirling around in the city," it said.

The report urged Britain to follow the lead of the United States in signing the 1970 UNESCO Convention on prohibiting illegal imports and exports of artifacts.

Dr Neil Brodie, one of the report's authors, said up to 90 percent of antiquities auctioned in London over the past 20 years had no details of origin.

"Obviously the auction houses have got something to hide because they won't tell us where material is coming from, they don't release details of provenance," he told BBC Radio.

"I think if everything was squeaky clean, they would be happy to," he said.

The accusations were strongly denied by James Ede, chairman of the Antiquities Dealers Association.

"This is nonsense. London has been the center of an open and honorable antiquities market for at least 200 years.

"During that time, hundreds of thousands of objects have come here and the provenance has often been lost because it was not regarded as important in the old days," he said.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
UNESCO
The UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions

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