Welcome back to the podcast, bribes, windle, or steel. I'm Alexandra Rogge. Today we're talking about

art, antiquities, and how the market for both can be abused by criminals. My guest is Tess Davis.

Tess is a lawyer and archaeologist and executive director of the Antiquities

Coalition. She works with both the art world and law enforcement to keep looted antiquities

off the market and for her work recovering plundered Khmer treasures, she was knighted by the royal

government of Cambodia in 2015. That is an unusual honor, Tess. Thank you for joining me.

Yes, and thank you so much for having me. Again,

we appreciate your doing what you can to bring attention to this issue. It's an important issue,

just from the public's perspective, of course, and for the countries whose patrimony is being looted. But for our purposes, for the financial crime community, why don't we start with the problem? Can you just

describe it for us, maybe give some examples, because I think this is a little off the beaten

track for a lot of our listeners. Our organization and think tank unites a diverse group of

experts in the fight against the illicit trade in art and antiquities, which is funding crime,

conflict, and violent extremism around the

world. I'm sure you have read paperback novels or seen Hollywood films about Tomb Raiders and

art smugglers, but in reality, this is not a victimless crime. It's not just a white-collar

crime. It's a very serious issue that has implications

for national security, for global economies, as well as our cultural heritage. But for the

financial industry as well, there's a reason for anyone interested in financial crime to be

interested in this issue. And that's because

the art market is a $64 billion market, which is often called, correctly, in my opinion,

the largest unregulated market in the world. And that, you know, puts us all at risk because

it's very susceptible, it's very vulnerable to being misused by criminals

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