Source: Reuters, ” India to curb smuggling of Buddhist relics,” Scotsman, October 17, 2006.

Source: Peter F. Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities, (New York: PublicAffairs, 2006), pg. 30.

Source: Tom Mueller, ” To Sketch a Thief,” New York Times Magazine, December 17, 2006.

From Reuters: Take a second look at that signed Picasso print you bought on eBay.A ring of art counterfeiters has sold thousands of prints since 1999 bearing the forged signatures of Picasso, Miro, Dali and other famous artists to buyers around the world. “Thousands of people will learn they … bought a fake,” said Chicago-based U.S. Attorney [...]

From the AP: The smuggling of stolen antiquities from Iraq’s rich cultural heritage is helping finance Iraqi extremist groups, says the U.S. investigator who led the initial probe into the looting of Baghdad’s National Museum.Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias are receiving funding from the [...]

The Associated Press has a list of notable art heists that have occurred over the course of several years. Between May 2003 and February 2008, $752.5 million in artwork has been stolen worldwide. The two most recent from the AP: _ February 2008: Armed robbers steal four paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet worth $163.2 [...]

The Boston Globe had an article on the emerging trend of museums returning antiques to the country of origin. These returned objects are only the most visible recent fruits of a powerful movement aimed at moving some of the world’s most prominent ancient treasures from the hands of foreign museums and collectors back to the so-called [...]

From the AP: It’s another public relations debacle for the nation’s museum industry, already tarred by reports that top institutions knowingly dealt in looted Italian artifacts. Federal agents raided several Southern California museums on Thursday, mostly in search of artifacts allegedly taken from Thailand’s Ban Chiang archeological site, one of the most important prehistoric settlements ever [...]

From AFP: Lucky fat ladies, porcelain pigs, ceramic musicians and giant Buddhas are crammed into Hong Kong’s antique boutiques, but some experts, backed by Chinese law, say many of them shouldn’t be here at all. By a curious twist of history and geopolitics, Hong Kong has become the legitimate outlet for ill-gotten treasures of Chinese history, a [...]

Slate columnist Tim Harford writes an article on the issue of the illicit antiquities trade, and a possible solution to eliminating the market.    As the article mentions, the black market in antiquities is created when countries place a ban on the trading of national antiquities. However, these policies unfortunately create the side effect of pushing [...]