The demand for antiquities in Western
art markets are fuelling the demand for
looted artefacts from the Middle East
However, this destruction is not always driven by
religious principles; it also has to do with lucrative business.
Many valuable items from raided museums and heritage sites
have been looted for smuggling into the art black market –
and there are many willing buyers waiting in the wings.
Art buyers are purchasing antiquities at depressed prices,
with the pieces having passed through the hands of
smugglers and middlemen, in turn spurring incentive to loot
and fuelling demand. In a report published in the Guardian,
US Customs noted that there was a 145 percent increase in
imports of Syrian cultural property and a 61 percent increase
in imports of Iraqi cultural property between 2011 and 2013.
The demand for antiquities in Western art markets is
fuelling the demand for looted artefacts from the Middle
East, while simultaneously providing an additional source of
income for looting factions, such as ISIS. The group profits
from selling the bounty, and regulates the black market.
The good news is that activists and experts have not
sat back and lamented such damages without action.
Numerous legislators are working to implement better
laws and monitoring systems that aim to curb this influx
of plundered artefacts. One means of doing so is to ensure
that the objects traded without a clear record of source
and previous ownership fetch lower prices. But, when
trading is occurring outside the parameters of legal trading,
there is little to stop the unprincipled buyer.above “Ford 71” in
Mahmoud Obaidi’s
exhibition Fragments
shows a pickup with
relics from the ancient
Assyrian, Babylonian
and Sumerian cultures
below Obaidi’s
toppled statue of
Saddam Hussein. He
threaded a rope from
the monument to stolen
artefacts in order to
tell the story of the
destruction of IraqIMAGES © MAHMOUD AL OBAIDI/OBAIDI ART "FRAGMENTS" EXHIBITIONAGES