A very dirty business in a very dirty war:
the illicit trade in Syrian antiquities
Mardin Artuklu University
9th January 2014
Dr. Samuel Andrew Hardy
Honorary Research Associate
UCL Institute of Archaeology
samarkeolog@gmail.com
@conflictantiq
http://conflictantiquities.wordpress.com
Syria is the worst-case scenario
1. How much of its cultural heritage is being
stolen?
2. Who is looting its archaeological sites and
historic buildings?
3. Who is smuggling the looted artefacts?
4. Who is buying these conflict antiquities?
What is happening?
‘Conditions are impossible to verify due to the
inaccessibility of archaeological and other sites
in Syria’ (archaeologist-journalist Joanne Bajjaly,
2012)
‘We don’t know what’s happening there’
(UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, 2013)
Apamea (20th July 2011)
© Arce (2012: fig. 1)
Apamea (4th April 2012)
© Arce (2012: fig. 2)
Official history-in-the-making
There is an ‘international criminal gang....
[that] specialise[s] in the theft of manuscripts
and antiquities, as well as the robbery of
museums, safes and banks [bande criminelle
international.... est spécialisé dans le vol des
manuscrits et des antiquités, ainsi que dans le
pillage des musées, des coffres et des
banques]’ (PM Adel Safar, 2011)
Antiquities mafias
Do ‘armed archaeological mafia gangs’ from
Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq ‘orchestrate most of
the looting’ (Director-General of Antiquities and
Museums, Maamoun Abdel-Karim, cited in van
Tets, 2013)?
Some non-combatant ‘armed groups’ are
‘protecting workers... who are digging non
stop’ (former Director of Excavations, Michel
Makdissi, cited in Bajjaly, 2013).
State complicity
Tell Hamoukar was looted ‘under the noses of
the security services [sous le nez des services de
sécurité]’ (Hadidi, 2011)
‘it is difficult to commit such crimes without
complicity at the highest level [of the state]
with security centre chiefs... and the blessing of
the Syrian regime’ (ibid.)
Looted from Palmyra, smuggled to Beirut – a
second-century Roman bust
© Marc Deville (in Jaber and Arbuthnott, 2013)
Looters and smugglers
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Trapped civilians
Escaping civilians
Opportunistic, “entrepreneurial” criminals
Organised criminals (antiquities mafias)
Assadist military forces
Islamist rebel forces
Secularist rebel forces
Rebel-allied foreign military and security forces
Regime looting/trafficking
‘Everybody does it.... every katiba (military
camp) [Tout le monde s’y est mis.... chaque
katiba]’ (multi-commodity smuggler Ayham,
cited in Mabillard, 2013)
‘Even the regime is dealing [in] antiquities,
because they are collapsing economically.
They need cash to pay the shabiha
[henchmen/thugs]’ (antiquities smuggler Abu
Jabbar, cited in Baker and Anjar, 2012)
Islamist rebel looting/trafficking
‘Nusra gets funding from Saudi individuals so
[their] supply [of weapons is] constant’ (Arab
diplomat, cited by Danahar, 2013), however...
‘jihadists [have taken] control of the traffic [les
groupes djihadistes armés font la loi et ont
pris le contrôle de la contrebande]’ (multicommodity smuggler Ayham, cited by
Mabillard, 2013)
Secularist rebel looting/trafficking
‘Some days we are fighters; others we are
archaeologists’ (Free Syrian Army fighter Jihad Abu
Saoud, cited by Luck, 2013)
‘The rebels need weapons, and antiquities are an easy
way to buy them’ (multi-commodity smuggler Abu
Khaled, cited by Baker and Anjar, 2012)
Looting is ‘a vital source of funding’ (FSA leaders,
paraphrased by Luck, 2013)
International complicity
‘there is collusion between security forces on each
side of the border’ (Lebanese Office of International
Thefts’ Lt. Col. Nicolas Saad, cited in Bajjaly, 2013)
‘Turkish customs officials close their eyes to the traffic
in Syrian objects [Les douaniers turcs... ferment les
yeux sur le trafic d’objets syriens]’ (multi-commodity
smuggler Ayham, cited by Mabillard, 2013)
‘smuggling antiquities [through Turkey] is the route to
easy money’ (ibid.)
A very dirty war
Turkey is ‘involved in a very dirty war’ (Ceylanpınar
mayor İsmail Arslan, cited in Zurutuza, 2013)
Turkey is the ‘nerve centre’ of Syrian rebels’ arms
supply (Doherty and Bakr, 2012)
Turkish ‘intelligence officers escorting the [Syrian
supply] convoy prevented [Turkish police] from
searching its contents on the grounds that the load
was a “state secret”’ (Albayrak, 2014)
A very dirty business
Antiquities ‘are transported [between Syria and Turkey] by
airplanes’ (Lt. Col. Saad, cited in Bajjaly, 2013)
22nd September 2011: Turkish airspace closed to military
suppliers to Syrian regime
14th October 2012: all civilian flights between Syria and Turkey
banned
Turkish-run, Saudi, Qatari and Jordanian military flights persist
(Chivers and Schmitt, 2013; Sunday’s Zaman, 2013)