@combatlooting.bsky.social
The Antiquities Coalition is leading the international campaign against cultural racketeering, the illicit trade in ancient art and artifacts.
Here's how you can help →
♻️Reshare our Map of the Ten Most Wanted Missing Antiquities, an illustrated guide to some of the most significant looted, stolen, and missing artifacts from around the world.
Learn more: theantiquitiescoalition.org/multimedia-r...
On this, the International Day Against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property, the AC recalls the human impact of #CulturalRacketeering.
📢Cultural plunder robs communities of their heritage, corrupts the archaeological record, and enables a range of organized crimes.
🖼️COMING SOON: An expert discussion featuring the AC's Tess Davis, @arguscpc.bsky.social, and
@transparencyusa.bsky.social.
Rogue Galleries: Tackling Illicit Finance in US Art Markets
⏰November 17, 2025 | 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
📍Hudson Institute/Online
→ Register here: www.hudson.org/preview-link...
🚨ALERT—Thieves stole six Roman statues from Syria's national museum in Damascus earlier this week.
Investigators are pursuing information about these lost cultural treasures.
Learn more: apnews.com/article/syri...
📣Over 40,000 looted artifacts returned to #Iraq in just four years—a milestone achievement in cultural diplomacy and law enforcement cooperation. But the fight is far from over.
Find out more: artdependence.com/articles/ira...
🖼️Five Years of Progress🖼️
On Sept. 24, 2020, the AC’s FCTF released its landmark report, 'Reframing U.S. Policy on the Art Market: Recommendations for Combating Financial Crimes.'
→ ow.ly/2Iy550X15p7
Stay tuned! In the days ahead, we'll share progress updates and insights from the FCTF.
How are Ukrainians fighting back against Russia’s assault on their cultural heritage?
🔊Find out—listen to this excellent discussion from the ‘Art in Brief’ podcast, featuring Roksolana Makar and Anastasiia Olexii.
pod.link/1792885681/e...
📅Mark Your Calendar📅
On September 23, @unesco.org will host a webinar marking the launch of the third volume in the Oxford Commentaries on International Cultural Heritage Law—the focus: #Asia.
🔗 Register here: utsmeet.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
🗺️From Burial to Battleground🗺️
The #Mariupol Bull Figurine—buried with a child 8,000 years ago, and excavated by a Ukrainian scholar later executed in Stalin’s purges—is now missing.
→ Explore our latest StoryMap, tracing its loss: ow.ly/pzNt50WTXtu
The #ArtMarketIntegrityAct closes a dangerous loophole.
🖼️ It protects honest businesses.
💵 It disrupts illicit finance.
🛡️ It strengthens national security.
→ Learn more: theantiquitiescoalition.org/congress-tak...
❌ Fiction: The #ArtMarketIntegrityAct would hurt small businesses.
✅ Fact: It only applies to sales over $10K or businesses making $55K+ annually. Small & casual sellers? Not affected.
❌ Fiction: The #ArtMarket already follows all anti-money laundering rules.
✅ Fact: While the market's leading professional guidelines DO go far beyond the BSA's requirements, thus far the sector is self-regulated—and an increasing number of "smoking guns" show how that self-regulation is failing.
❌ Fiction: The art sector isn’t a big enough to warrant BSA protection.
✅ Fact: The global art market is worth $68B—larger than the music industry & rivaling luxury jewelry. Its high-value, private deals make it a money launderer’s haven.
#ArtMarketIntegrityAct
❌ Fiction: Art dealers aren't banks, so they should not be subject to the BSA.
✅ Fact: Despite its name, the BSA covers a wide-range of high-risk professionals and industries—including sellers of cars, boats, planes, jewels, stones, and precious metals.
#AML #ArtCrime
🖼️Dirty money is infiltrating the U.S. art market.
The #ArtMarketIntegrityAct would fight back by expanding the Bank Secrecy Act—protecting legitimate businesses, while helping law enforcement track illicit financial flows.
Let’s bust 4 myths we've seen circulating around the bill:
📅Mark Your Calendar!
The U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee will meet Sept. 15-17 to review a new CPA request from #Cameroon and to renew agreements with #Colombia and #Türkiye, and extend emergency restrictions for #Afghanistan.
Find Out More: ow.ly/39SS50WEV0B
🚨 New addition to our Ten Most Wanted Antiquities: The “Mariupol Bull Figurine,” one of more than 2,000 museum pieces that disappeared amid the chaos of Russia’s 2022 siege of Mariupol and the Kremlin’s broader campaign of cultural plunder.
Learn more: theantiquitiescoalition.org/antiquities-...
The Art Market Integrity Act will deny illicit actors the opportunity to launder money through the US art market. Huge shoutout to @combatlooting.bsky.social for their work championing this important bill. See their full press release here:
theantiquitiescoalition.org/congress-tak...
🌐Join us August 5, 2025
Together with the @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social Eurasia Center, we will announce the latest addition to the #TenMostWantedMissingAntiquities list and hear expert discussion on the Russian war on Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
→ Register here: ow.ly/PmeI50WwfgQ
By extending BSA guardrails to the art market, the Art Market Integrity Act will help protect our national interests, ensuring that criminals do not succeed at the expense of law-abiding collectors, dealers, galleries, and auction houses.
🏦Read more: theantiquitiescoalition.org/congress-tak...
BSA guidelines mirror industry-authored best practices like
✅Know Your Customer (KYC)
✅Good record keeping
✅Basic due diligence
The BSA’s framework is no longer limited to banks. Its reporting and compliance standards now apply across a broad range of sectors vulnerable to financial crime—including💎🎰⛵️🚗💍🏠
What's not protected? 🖼️🏺
🖼️A Bipartisan Bill to Stop #ArtCrime: The Art Market Integrity Act
The newly released legislative proposal is essential to protect national security, economic integrity, and American businesses.
→ theantiquitiescoalition.org/congress-tak...
The AC congratulates the @manhattanda.bsky.social Antiquities Trafficking Unit for the restitution of three artifacts to #Indonesia and 28 antiquities to #Turkey.
🛡️Read More: manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-an...
📣 NEW on the AC Blog: The Lalitpur Call to Action—How Regional Leadership is Driving Global Solutions Against Cultural Racketeering.
The AC commends @nhrcampaign.bsky.social's leadership in the fight for justice and cultural restitution.
🔸Read more: ow.ly/fj1Z50WmqiC
🇺🇸 🤝🇰🇭 The AC is proud to join an upcoming panel on "Insights from the U.S.–Cambodia Cultural Property Agreement."
📅 30 June 2025
📍 US-ASEAN Center (in-person and online)
🔗 Register by June 27: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
IN THE NEWS—Online antiquities trafficking spikes in #Syria following the collapse of Assad’s regime, reports researchers from the ATHAR Project.
🔍Learn more: ow.ly/2yZ150W6rPy
⛑️Want to help? Save and share ICOM's Red List of Syrian antiquities at risk: ow.ly/3fEF50W6rPx
❓Who is the rightful custodian of the Prakhon Chai Hoard?
For AC’s Executive Director Tess Davis, the answer is clear: Fifty years later, it’s past time to return Thailand’s looted statues.
→ Read more: theantiquitiescoalition.org/acs-tess-dav...
The AC was proud to co-lead a session at #ICAHM2025 on plundering and the restitution of cultural collections.
Key takeaways:
🔹 Legal gaps undermine repatriation
🔹 Soft law tools are critical—but need political will
🔹 Multilateral action is key
🔗 Read More: ow.ly/NQBB50VXsbT
Operation Pandora continues to see results: 80 arrests and more than 37,700 cultural goods seized.
Other Key Numbers:
🔩 69 Metal detectors seized
🌏 23 countries involved in the operation
⚖️ 258 cases reported, with more arrests and seizures expected
www.interpol.int/fr/Actualite...
