Illicit Antiquities
Research Centre
against the theft & traffic
of archaeology

Culture Without Context

Issue 6,
Spring 2000

Stealing History: the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material

(Please note this book is now out of print and in some areas is out-of-date, but can be downloaded as a .pdf file [2.2Mb] here)

June 12 saw the launch of Stealing History: the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material, a report commissioned by the Museums Association and ICOM-UK, and written by Neil Brodie, Jenny Doole and Peter Watson. It provides an overview of the illicit trade in archaeological, ethnographic and palaeontological material, and the damage it causes, and makes recommendations for museums to protect them from buying illicit material, and for Her Majesty's Government to help stamp the trade out. Stealing History is available from the Museums Association or the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

First posted September 2000; Page design updated September 2006