The Middle East Antiquities Market Is Full of Loopholes

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Marka toel sten tracks the trade of antiquities coming from the middle east. According to adnon, artifacts that would fetch tens or hundreds of dollars in syria could be sold for thousands of dollars in secret. It's really difficult to track how many illegal antiques there are for sale at any given moment in europe or the us. For antique item to be sold legally in the us,. Or in europe, it needs to have what they call provinonce. That is essentially a kind of sales history, to prove that it hasn't been taken from its country of origin after 19 70.

Priceless cultural artifacts have been plundered and sold for hundreds of years. You can find these relics in museums and in private collections. In recent years, with the advent of online marketplaces, researchers have begun to find a lot of artifacts for sale on the web.

The Syrian War has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties. Not to mention, hundreds of billions in damages. And that battle has played out on land considered to be the cradle of civilization -- a place rich with layers of archeological history.

Producer Zeina Dowidar and her team on the Kerning Cultures podcast tell stories about the Middle East and North Africa. For this episode, they took a comprehensive, inside look at how one country struggled to retain its cultural heritage in the midst of a brutal conflict.

Divining Provenance

Plus we have an interview and preview of the podcast Real Good