Funding War and Terror Through Appropriated Art and Antiquities

This case study examines the looting and trafficking of antiquities from within civil war-ravaged Syria as a funding source for war and terror. In particular, it investigates the extent to which the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is incorporating this activity relating to their attempts to establish a new caliphate in the region. This examination employs semi-structured interviews with experts from the art crime and heritage preservation fields, as well as document analysis, to capture a snapshot of the current situation. Themes touched upon include the actors and players on both sides of the trafficking issue, the looting and trafficking processes, the fight to protect cultural heritage, media bias with regard to topical reporting, and ownership and restitution of looted antiquities.