Protecting our cultural antiquities: Professor Simon Mackenzie

Issued: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:06:00 BST

Professor Simon Mackenzie is leading a research project by the Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research, which aims to combat the global trade in illicit artefacts.

Each year, objects of cultural significance and value are looted and smuggled around the world, often turning up in private collections and even museums in the West. The European Research Council funded project will gather and analyse data ranging from illegal excavation and pricing structures to the motives of traffickers. The aim is to develop new approaches to regulate the international trade of cultural goods and to help policymakers better define laws to fight criminal activities.

Much of the problem with this trade is hidden by a lack of a solid research base, as Professor Mackenzie explains: ‘Everybody knows that illicit trafficking in cultural heritage has been going on for a very long time. But it’s a very private trade and because of that, it is difficult to record accurate statistics on the size of the problem globally.’

The team will take a multi-sited ethnographic approach, conducting a series of observations and interviews at various points in a chosen global supply chain. ‘We have identified a known trade route – starting in Cambodia, crossing the border into Thailand, then on to Europe and finishing either in London or New York, the world’s two centres for the antiquities trade – and we will identify key people, looters, local police, customs officials, dealers and collectors at each point, to interview for our research,’ says Professor Mackenzie.

‘People are buying and selling cultural objects in the international market for millions of dollars and that money filters back down the chain of supply to the looters and smalltime dealers in source countries. If we can stop that from happening, we will remove the incentive for stealing cultural objects and begin to unwind the criminal side of the market.’