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Blood antiquities

Topic: Social

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 3 min

Short description: Archaeological artefacts looted during conflict
Photo of the (already destroyed) Monumental Arch of Palmyra, Syria. The Islamic State financed itself by looting this and other archaeological sites such as Mosul, Nineveh or Apamea, and selling the stolen pieces on the black market online.[1]

Blood antiquities are archaeological artefacts that have been plundered during conflicts and have been used to fund these wars. The looting of archaeological sites and the illicit trafficking of cultural property is, and has been, a common practice for terrorist groups in war zones. The pieces mostly end up on the black market, art galleries and antique shops in Europe and North America,[2] or in millionaire private collections. The looting of blood antiquities especially affects the Middle East, because it is a very conflictive area and at the same time has a great density of archaeological sites.[3]

By country

Iraq

Main article: Social:Archaeological looting in Iraq

During the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, major robberies occurred at the National Museum of Iraq. Around 50,000 pieces were quantified, 25% of all the museum's heritage.[4]

The Archaeological Institute of America estimates that the revenue from looted antiquities is between $ 10 and $ 20 million annually.[5] Terrorist and rebel groups have a long history of using stolen artifacts to finance their operations.[6]

Syria

During the Syrian Civil War, the Islamic State (ISIS) carried out the systematic looting of historical sites as the main form of profit,[7] after the oil business. It is estimated that ISIS has occupied around 4,500 sites and that the income derived from the antiquities trade amounts to 100,000,000 USD annually.[8] The terrorist organization even has an internal institution dedicated to this illegal trade.[7]

Ukraine

Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 and the subsequent Russian occupation of Crimea in 2022, official estimates of 1.7 million artifacts belonging to Ukraine, such as the Mariupol Bull Figurine, have been taken from Ukrainian museums and archaeological, cultural, and heritage sites.[9] The removal of these artifacts has been characterized by organizations such as the Antiquities Coalition as a way to illicitly profit off of Ukraine's loss of cultural identity.[9]

Yemen

In Yemen, blood antiquities are financing the Civil War that the country has been suffering since 2015. The Antiquities Coalition (AC) published a report in 2019 in which it is estimated that, in the country's museums alone, 1,631 historical objects have disappeared. The museums affected are the Aden National Museum, the Taiz National Museum and the Zinjibar National Museum; that's not counting the many archaeological sites like Shabwa.[10] The illicit trafficking of these pieces is one of the main forms of financing for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Houthi movement.[11]

References

  1. ↑ John, Mark (2015-06-10). "'Blood antiquities': a wound the world struggles to staunch" (in en). Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-antiquities-analysis-idUSKBN0OQ16320150610. 
  2. ↑ "Les antiquités du sang : quels acteurs pour le trafic des œuvres d'art ?" (in fr). 2020-01-15. https://www.imarabe.org/fr/rencontres-debats/les-antiquites-du-sang-quels-acteurs-pour-le-trafic-des-oeuvres-d-art. 
  3. ↑ Colwell, Chip (2016-06-10). "Speaking out against blood antiquities" (in en). Science 352 (6291): 1285. doi:10.1126/science.aaf9132. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 27284185. Bibcode: 2016Sci...352.1285C. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaf7386. 
  4. ↑ Intxausti, Aurora (2003-04-15). "El saqueo viola la cuna de la civilización" (in es). El País. ISSN 1134-6582. https://elpais.com/diario/2003/04/16/cultura/1050444001_850215.html. 
  5. ↑ Rothfield, Lawrence (2009). The rape of Mesopotamia : behind the looting of the Iraq Museum. Library Genesis. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. pp. 138. ISBN 978-0-226-72945-9. http://archive.org/details/rapemesopotamiab00roth. 
  6. ↑ Rothfield, op. cit. p. 132
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Le trafic des antiquités du sang ou le pillage par Daech du 15 avril 2016 - France Inter" (in fr). 15 April 2016. https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/le-zoom-de-la-redaction/le-zoom-de-la-redaction-15-avril-2016. 
  8. ↑ "La lutte infinie contre les antiquités du sang" (in fr). 4 March 2016. https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/le-billet-economique/la-lutte-infinie-contre-les-antiquites-du-sang. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Arose, Helena (2025-08-05). "Antiquities Coalition Enlists the Public to Help Ukraine Recover Missing Cultural Treasure" (in en-US). https://theantiquitiescoalition.org/antiquities-coalition-enlists-the-public-to-help-ukraine-recover-missing-cultural-treasure/. 
  10. ↑ Jarus, Owen (2019). "'Blood Antiquities' Looted from War-Torn Yemen Bring in $1 Million at Auction" (in en). https://www.livescience.com/65641-yemen-blood-antiquities-investigation.html. 
  11. ↑ "Public's Help Needed to Recover "Blood Antiquities"". 2019-03-06. https://theantiquitiescoalition.org/publics-help-needed-to-recover-blood-antiquities/. 



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