Good progress against illegal artefact trading

[Imperial Dave]

http://www.balkaneu.com/40-arrests-thousands-of-items-seized-in-bulgaria-turkey-and-france-in-operation-against-illegal-trade-in-archaeological-objects/

Big successful operation but probably a fraction of whats going on

[Patrick Waterson]

Still, putting 40 active smugglers and dealers out of action can only help.

[Chuck the Grey]

Still, putting 40 active smugglers and dealers out of action can only help.

It will help at lot. Some of the arrested dealing will roll over and lead investigators to other participants. With a bit if skill and luck, the authorities will be able to close out a large portion of the illegal trade. Still, it's only a start.

[Imperial Dave]

agreed. Its underworld stuff so hopefully will lead to a shutting down of various illegal networks for the transmission of stolen artefacts on a potentially global scale.

Sadly, these type of people will always try to find a way to exploit stolen artefacts and if one channel shuts down another will open up somewhere else at some point

[willb]

Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and crafts stores here in the states, was recently fined three million dollars and had to return a lot of illegally obtained Iraqi artifacts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/nyregion/hobby-lobby-artifacts-smuggle-iraq.html

[Imperial Dave]

ouch....

[Mark G]

Clearly lobbying the wrong congressmen.

[Imperial Dave]