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British antiques shops dealing in artefacts smuggled by Isis
 [Guardian] Mark Altaweel is surprised at how easy it is. A few hours into a hunt around London, the near-east specialist from the UCL Institute of Archaeology has uncovered objects that, he says, are "very likely to be coming from conflict regions" in Iraq and Syria. The items ‐ pieces of early glass; a tiny statue; some fragments of bone inlay ‐ range from the second to fourth centuries BC. Altaweel says they are so distinctive that they could only have come from a particular part of the region: the part now controlled by the so-called Islamic State. That we were able to find such items openly sold in London "tells you the scale ‐ we’re just seeing the tail end of it," he says.
Lengthy article continues.
Posted by: Besoeker 2018-03-29 |
