illicit antiquities trading in economic crisis, organised crime and political violence
I am a cultural property criminologist. I have researched war crimes, organised crime, online trafficking and other aspects of cultural property crime, such as intersections with drugs trafficking, corruption, police criminality and political violence, particularly in eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, especially in Ukraine and Turkey. I blog my research on Conflict Antiquities.
Following the overall findings and recommendations of the new report on Mobilising Care for Cultural Heritage in Russia’s War against Ukraine [Мобілізація догляду за культурною спадщиною в умовах війни Росії проти України], which I listed in my previous post, these are extracts of observations about illicit trafficking of cultural goods and obstacles to counter-trafficking.
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A new, English and Ukrainian-language report has been published on Mobilising Care for Cultural Heritage in Russia’s War against Ukraine [Мобілізація догляду за культурною спадщиною в умовах війни Росії проти України].
Posted in Illicit Antiquities, Property Destruction, Research | 1 Comment »
Across eastern Europe between the early 2010s and the early 2020s, numerous cannabis-cultivators either hunted for militaria, took militaria that they found while cultivating cannabis or were acquainted with cannabis-cultivators who hunted for militaria. So, these are more of the overflowing notes for an article on interactions and other intersections between artefact-hunting and cannabis-cultivation, covering black digging (illegal excavation) of modern militaria.
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I’m in the process of publishing an article on integration of artefact-hunting with cannabis-cultivation, disruption of artefact-hunting by cannabis-cultivation and vice versa and other intersections between small-scale trafficking of cultural goods and small-scale trafficking of psychotropic substances in eastern Europe.
These are just a few of the notes that put the text way over the word limit, including comments on the nature of the online communities under analysis, community members’ discretion about their activities and their experiences of artefact-hunting and expressions of identity as artefact-hunters.
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conflict antiquities