The looting of archaeological sites is a persistent phenomenon. Despite the development of normative legal, regulatory and policy frameworks over the past 50 years to tackle looting at source, and the subsequent trafficking of this looted material, there is little evidence to suggest that looting is abating. Trafficking culture is the culmination of a cross-disciplinary research project of the same name funded by the European Research Council between 2012 and 2016, which focused on developing research methodologies, theoretical interventions and the production of evidence-based research to understand better the illicit antiquities trade.
The book is divided into eight chapters tracing the illegal trade in antiquities from source to destination. Chapter 1 introduces the three phases of the trading process: source, transit and market. Antiquities, a subset of cultural property configured around collectability and archaeological and aesthetic value, are obtained by actors in low income ‘source’ countries through illicit excavation or theft and moved through a transit phase whereby the objects’ illicit origins are obscured, before ending up on the ‘destination’ art market. The interstices between the discrete stages of the illicit antiquities trade are explored in Chapter 2, which considers the nuanced transformations that occur during the journey of a trafficked object. In this chapter it is argued that there is no boundary between a legitimate and illicit antiquities market; they are intrinsically one and the same—a grey market.
The discourse of the book shifts towards criminology in Chapter 3, in which the authors investigate why policies seeking to address and stop illegal trade have largely failed. The trade in antiquities is resituated as a transnational criminal market (TCM) and subsequently analysed with reference to the regulatory regimes in place for TCMs such as those dealing in drugs and diamonds. Analysis of these TCMs enables the authors to create a normative architecture of four approaches for conceptualising preventative interventions to curtail the illicit market: economic, social, legal and situational. This chapter steers the book towards the sphere of policy, which is clearly the primary area that the authors hope this book will influence.
Chapters 4–7 exclusively focus on the final stage of the illicit trade in antiquities—the destination market. Chapters 4–5 introduce the concept that information is a controlled strategic resource within destination markets, deployed to obscure, manipulate and sanitise interactions. Social relations between destination market actors are highlighted here as an under-investigated but important aspect of reiterating the illicit trade. Chapter 5 situates destination market actors within criminological theories of ‘white collar crime’. The authors utilise frameworks related to the “normalisation of deviance” (p. 78), the social effects of bureaucratic processes, and structural strain in order to theorise the criminal behaviour of destination market actors.
Arguments around what the authors term ‘autoregulation’ and ‘self-regulation’ within destination markets are discussed in Chapters 6–7. The authors present a comprehensive analysis of data from major auction houses to deconstruct the idea that objects with greater provenance are favoured by consumers. Instead, characteristics such as aesthetic quality and size are greater indicators of saleability than provenance in destination markets. Self-regulation, the preferred method of control among destination market actors is, the authors argue, untenable without a significant structural shift towards transparency of information and the “managed uncertainty” (p. 32) that pervades much of the market. The authors posit that a model for more equitable and effective regulation lies in the development of the antiquities trade into an ethical consumer market (ECM).
Chapter 8 draws together the work of the previous chapters to outline why international and domestic policy developments have failed to reduce the illicit antiquities trade. The authors cite impracticality of site protection policies, the reactive nature of cultural property policy, and an overemphasis on recovery and return as the primary drivers of policy failure. The authors’ recommendations for alternative policy directions, with the goal of developing an ECM, are: encouraging greater informational transparency and actively incentivising purchasing antiquities with legitimate provenances.
The authors cite a lack of evidence-based policy as a common thread in repeated failures to regulate the antiquities market; the analysis presented in this book will help to address this situation. Reading the authors’ careful investigation into why previous policies have failed to curb the antiquities trade does, however, suggest that the provision of evidence-based policy for this area is unlikely to address the deeper, structural and ideological issues that underpin the trade. Indeed, the book would benefit from a more detailed analysis and discussion of why this market exists at all. Chapter 1 provides a brief history of the trade, tying it to Enlightenment cosmopolitanism, the Grand Tour and Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital. These are all salient and important points for understanding the historical contingency of the market. The authors do not go further, however, to address the ways in which the antiquities trade is a contemporary instantiation of the iniquitous relationships that emerged as a result of colonialism in the Global South. The trade facilitates the removal of cultural property from post-colonial states to their former oppressors, reiterating experiences of cultural and material dispossession. This durable coloniality means that, ultimately, there is a lack of political will to tackle the trade properly.
Trafficking culture is a thoroughly researched, concise yet comprehensive introduction to the illicit antiquities trade. It is highly recommended as a primary resource for both undergraduates and graduate students interested in understanding the major themes in scholarship on the illicit antiquities trade. The volume provides a concise summation of a decade of research by the individual authors, and develops considered arguments for advancing evidence-based policy positions. In so doing, it offers a vision for a more equitable antiquities market.
