Bulgarian officials arrested over twenty people they accuse of illegal activities in Europe ("Bulgaria recovers over 5,000 antiquities in joint anti-smuggling op with Turkey, France" Daily Sabah May 26, 2017). Bulgaria is clearly not doing enough to solve this problem,
"This is one of the largest such operations conducted so far," the ministry statement said [...]. The artifacts concerned came mainly from sites in Bulgaria and Turkey and were smuggled out to be sold in Western Europe, mostly in France, Germany and Britain. [...] Lack of funds for official archeological works since the fall of communism in Bulgaria in 1989 has led to the looting of many rich archeological sites across the country.
Obviously countries like these should be doing much more to protect their own heritage before they expect us to place restrictions on the activities of respectable dealers and collectors in the US.
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