FBI: Don’t Accidentally Buy Artifacts Stolen By ISIS

The FBI has a word of advice for all you antique dealers and museum conservator out there : If you ’re trade in Syrian or Iraqi pieces right now , you could be funding ISIS .

Anotice released by the FBI todaycautions dealers and curator that ISIS has been carry out “ industrial - level looting at Syrian and Iraqi archaeologic site , ” and that stolen goods are now get in in the US . “ We now have believable reports that U.S. someone have been offer ethnical property that appears to have been removed from Syria and Iraq latterly , ” writes the handler of the FBI ’s Art Theft Program , Bonnie Magness - Gardiner , in a statementpointed out byHyperallergicthis week . In apodcast today , she put out a call to dealers : “ Ask questions . gibe story of ownership . ensure they were spell legally into the United States . Verify the data . And deal with reputable dealers . ”

But the FBI is n’t just interested in stop theoutpouring of ethnic heritagefrom land under the dominance of ISIS — they’re admonish US - based dealers because there are serious criminal penalties involved . bribe a piece , even inadvertently , from ISIS could be prosecuted as aiding a terrorist organisation here in the US . And member countries of the UN must , under a raw resolution , “ take steps to preclude terrorist grouping in Iraq and Syria from receiving donations and from benefiting from deal in oil , antiquity , and hostages . ”

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According to theAntiquities alinement , this kind of alert is pretty rare for the FBI . “ This commendable action by the FBI — which to our knowledge is unprecedented — further confirms that the illicit antiquities trade is funding crime and fight around the globe , ” the Coalition wrote yesterday , sum up that the UN willhost a forum on the produce cultural crisisnext month .

Systematic, Industrial-Scale Looting

The FBI ’s wording is perhaps the most startling thing about the alert . What does “ industrial - scale looting ” look like , exactly ? Across these conflict zone , it looks like sprawl , taxonomic dig at heritage sites that were once protect .

This is distinct from the Islamic State ’s wide publicized destruction of heritage sites , most recently the demolition of the ancient metropolis of Palmyra , a UNESCO situation where ISISdetonated a series of explosives this week . It ’s also dissimilar from thepublic decapitation of a Syrian archeologist and scholaramidst the ruining of Palmyra earlier this calendar month . While those public acts of terrorism were understandably wielded as propaganda , these widespread excavations seem to be aim at sell the objects uncovered . This profit - focused robbery is being done at a scale that is visible from space , and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has cobbled togethersome instance of the robbery .

Their first model is Dura Europos , an ancient city on the Euphrates and curb at various point by both Grecian and Roman groups . As the Bureau points out , it has huge significance thanks to its many temple and its synagogue – the discovery of which would “ finally reshape ideas about both synagogue architecture and the Judaic religion itself , ” asone historian pen . Here ’s what Dura Europos look like in 2012 , before the looting .

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Now , it ’s “ covered in looting quarry , ” the shell of which can be encompass by the detail :

How about an even old site , Mari , which date back to 3000 BC ? Mari , which sit down on the easterly border of Syria , was once a bustling centre of business deal — since it was fall upon in the thirties , archaeologist have unveil remarkable discovery , like25,000 clay tabletsand the remains of a castle , which you could see marked on this image from 2012 :

What ’s horrible , in Mari ’s case , is that the majority of the metropolis had n’t yet been excavated . Work was still underway . Today it ’s surrounded by gap holes , where looters have sunk pits to extract the artifacts that remain to be reveal by archeologist :

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It ’s terrible to see these situation being foray before they can be fully document , learn , and understood — now , as the FBI says , second and pieces of their chronicle are being pushed into the worldly concern at big for profit .

At the very least , the FBI is notifying the dealers who are in the marketplace for antiquities that they could be adjudge creditworthy for aiding a terrorist organization . But like the conviction of a 17 - year - old American who wassentenced to jail for tweeting pro - ISIS sentiments today , prosecuting Americans for supporting ISIS or ISIL is a complicated thing itself — and it may do little to staunch the looting being done at these sites .

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Photo: Jae C. Hong