FBI warns U.S. art dealers about
antiquities looted from Syria, Iraq
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[August 27, 2015]
By Victoria Cavaliere
(Reuters) - The FBI on Wednesday urged art
dealers in the United States to be careful when buying antiquities from
the Middle East, saying there is evidence collectors have recently been
offered artifacts plundered by Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.
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The looting of ancient artifacts across Iraq and Syria and their
sale on the black market has become a source of funding for Islamic
State militants, and there is growing concern those items are
showing up in the Western marketplace, the FBI said in a press
release.
"We now have credible reports that U.S. persons have been offered
cultural property that appears to have been removed from Syria and
Iraq recently,” said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, manager of the FBI’s
Art Theft Program.
Magness-Gardiner urged collectors and buyers to be vigilant checking
importation, provenance and other documents.
"What we’re trying to say is, don’t allow these pieces that could
potentially support terrorism to be part of the trade," she said.
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Islamic State, a hardline Sunni Islamist group, has ransacked some
of the greatest archaeological sites in northern Iraq and Syria,
posting photos and videos of fighters destroying pre-Islamic
monuments and temples they consider idolatrous.
On Tuesday, the group published photos purporting to show the
destruction of the Roman-era Baal Shamin temple in the ancient
Syrian city of Palmyra, an act the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO has
called a war crime.
Before the city's capture by Islamic State, Syrian officials said
they moved hundreds of ancient statues to safe locations out of
concern they would be destroyed by the militants.
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Last month, the United States handed back to Iraq antiquities it
said had been seized in a raid on Islamic State fighters in Syria,
saying the retrieval was proof the group was attempting to sell the
items to raise cash.
The relics included ancient cylindrical stamps, pottery, metallic
bracelets and other jewelry.
Islamic State fighters have desecrated ancient Assyrian and
Graeco-Roman palaces in northern Iraq including the 2,700-year-old
Assyrian capital of Khorsabad.
Growing concern the trade in plundered artifacts can help finance
militants earned them the nickname "blood antiquities" - adapted
from the phrase "blood diamond," used to refer to gems that financed
fighters in African wars from Angola to Sierra Leone.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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