Illicit trade

Below you will find a list of reading related to the illicit trade in art and artefacts. The list is a work in progress and will be regularly updated. If you are aware of other resources you think are important and should be included then please feel free to email feedback@criticalreflections.org with your suggestions.

Atwood, R. (2004) Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World. New York: St Martin’s Press

Bauer, A. (2007) New Ways of Thinking About Cultural Property: A Critical Appraisal of the Antiquities Trade Debate. Fordham International Law Journal, 31, 3, 690-724

Brodie, N. (2003) Illicit Antiquities: The Theft of Culture and the Extinction of Archaeology. New York: Routledge

Brodie, N. et al. (2008) Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade. Florida: University Press of Florida

Campbell, P. B. (2013) The Illicit Antiquities Trade as a Transnational Criminal Network: Characterizing and Anticipating Trafficking of Cultural Heritage. International Journal of Cultural Property, 20, 2, 113-153, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739113000015

Desmarais, F. (ed.) (2015) Countering Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods: The Global Challenge of Protecting the World’s Heritage. France: ICOM

Hauser-Schäublin, B. and Prott, L. V. (2016) Cultural Property and Contested Ownership: The trafficking of artefacts and the quest for restitution. Oxon: Routledge

Kersel, M. M. (2007) Transcending Borders: Objects on the Move. Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 81-98, DOI 10.1007/s11759-007-9013-0

Mackenzie, S., Brodie, N., Yates, D. and Tsirogiannis, C. (2019) Trafficking Culture: New Directions in Researching in the Global Market in Illicit Antiquities. Oxon: Routledge

Proulx, B. B. (2013) Archaeological Site Looting in “Glocal” Perspective: Nature, Scope, and Frequency. American Journal of Archaeology, 117, 111-25

Thomas, S. and Pitblado, B. L. (2020) The dangers of conflating responsible and responsive artefact stewardship with illicit and illegal collecting. Antiquity, 94, 376, 1060-1067, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.201

Watson, P. and Todeschini, C. (2007) The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities – From Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums. Massachusetts: Public Affairs

Yates, D. and Brodie, N. (2023) The illicit trade in antiquities is not the world’s third-largest illicit trade: a critical evaluation of a factoid. Antiquity, 97, 394, 991-1003, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.90