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. (2006) From the Ground to the Buyer: A Market Analysis of the Illegal Trade in Antiquities. In N. Brodie, M.M. Kersel, C. Luke and K. Walker Tubb (eds) 2006. Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and the Antiquities Trade. University Press of Florida, pp. 188-205.

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

Kersel, M. M. and Gerstenblith, P. (2025) "Cultural Heritage and Security Policy," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 2024, Article 6.

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