Debunking of the $36 million figure

Collectors are facing new criticisms today from the radical archeologists, followed by the international media and are unjustly being blamed for the current war in Syria. This is based entirely on the allegations by a journalist of a socialist newspaper in England that ISIS has made $36 million from looting one site alone in western Syria. That is ridiculous and trade champions have been trying to get across the truth to these people. Peter Tompa has made great efforts on our behalf: '$36 million looting figure loses further credibility'

Hopefully, anyone in the archaeological blogosphere still holding out hope that that $36 million figure for looted artifacts in one area alone has or will be "verified" or "corroborated" will read this: "So how much money is ISIL making from looted antiquities? Several media reports over the past two months put it at millions of dollars. One said ISIL had made $36m (Dh132m) alone from looting at one site in Syria. A spokesperson for Unesco’s Emergency Safeguarding of the Syrian Heritage Project also called the high figures being quoted grossly inaccurate. Desmarais [of ICOM] agrees: 'If someone gives you a number today, they are lying to you.' Brodie also questions the financial figures put on looting and has called for proper verification. “I don’t believe these figures,” he says. “In 2013, Sotheby’s New York turned over $20m in antiquities sales from the entire Mediterranean and Middle East area, so ISIL would need to be making more than Sotheby’s from one site. For another perspective, assuming found antiquities in Syria are worth $50 each (which is an optimistic estimate), ISIL would need to have found and sold 720,000 antiquities.”

No wonder government, academia and the press are held in such low regard these days. The same writer has produced additional proof that the English journalist (deliberately misled by lying Iraqi intelligence officers) got it badly wrong ('More Debunking of the $36 million figure').

Artnet news, citing German sources, has also debunked the claim that $36 million in antiquities were looted from one area in Syria. Why is this so important? - because the figure has been used to justify proposed changes in the law in both Germany and the United States that will impose the "devil's proof" on collectors of common artifacts which have been legally held for generations.

English writer John H. Howland adds a cogent comment: 

Most seriously perhaps, is that many archaeologists, on the one the hand reckon 'archaeology' is something akin to 'science' of forensic accuracy, yet, when it suits them, latch on to and promote UNPROVEN allegations as FACT. This must in my view, and I suspect others too, strongly suggest that if they are capable of such chicanery, how much reliance, even integrity, can be placed on their academic work? Presumably, some US legislators are being led by the nose up the garden path? It will be illuminating to see which US Senators and Congressmen fall for the ruse. Warm wishes John Howland England