Debunking the ISIS Antiquities Funding Myth

Art Law Expert Kate Fitz Gibbon
calls for a return to rationality

Ben Taub’s New Yorker article, The Real Value of the ISIS Antiquities Trade, blows apart the State Department, Department of Justice, and Antiquities Coalition claims that ISIS is raking in tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars from the sale of antiquities. Kate Fitz Gibbon of the Committee for Cultural Policy writes ('Debunking the ISIS Antiquities Funding Myth'):

"There is a hidden agenda behind adoption of a story that promotes the Big Lie of ISIS’ funding through antiquities – the denigration and destruction of the legitimate international trade in art. US energies should not be wasted against ephemeral enemies. We should aim – swiftly – against the real targets who are providing funding for ISIS."