It's the ancients on history hit.

I'm Tristan Hughes your host.

And in today's episode, where we're talking about the darker side of archaeology, the illegal

seizing of ancient artifacts, this black market of archaeology, a practice that stretches back hundreds

of years and to shine a light on it from the time of colonial empires down to the present day,

while I was delighted to interview Professor Valerie Higgins from the American

University of Rome.

This was a really eye-opening chat with Valerie explaining why and how illicit artifacts have all too often made their way to museums and private

houses across the world for centuries.

But also the great lengths that museums and governmental bodies have gone to to crack down on this

illegal trade over recent decades. The fight back is on. The huge scale of this problem today

is a key reason why we really do need to cover this

topic on the ancients. We can't shy away from it. I really do hope you enjoy and

here's Valerie.

Valerie it is wonderful to have you on the podcast. Well it's brilliant to be here and talking about one of my favorite topics as well

which is illicit trafficking.

Well I mean yes illicit trafficking this is a darker side of archaeology but it still

is very much a thing even today. Oh absolutely it really is in fact it seems to be increasing both in

scale and in importance as well so it's a very concerning thing in fact.

I mean, people might think, oh, art trafficking,

that's some kind of romantic thing,

you know, of art lovers who want to like hoard art, but I'm afraid it isn't, it's actually a pretty dirty trade.

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