Thursday, September 11, 2014

Alleged Links Between ISIL/ISIS and Western Collectors Require Strict Scrutiny

Kate Fitz Gibbon, a former Cultural Property Advisory Committee member, has this to say about recent efforts to link ISIL/ISIS terrorism to Western collectors as the basis to support yet another embargo on the import of artifacts from present-day Syria.

Meanwhile, CBS News has outlined major ISIL/ISIS funding sources as "hot oil," extortion and donations from wealthy Gulf Arabs.   Alleged antiquity sales to Western collectors are not mentioned at all.

CPO hopes US government decision makers and mainstream media scrutinize claims that Western collectors are funding ISIL/ISIS terrorism far more seriously than they did for equally dubious claims that Western collectors benefited from the looting of the Iraq Museum or that Western collectors were driving looting in Revolutionary Egypt.


No comments: