The criminal trade in ancient objects

6 Minute English

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of us like to visit museums to see ancient artefacts in person – it's an exciting way to learn about the history and culture of different civilisations. But did you know that there are criminal networks which steal and trade these ancient objects? Neil and Beth discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:05.6	Do you know someone who is starting to learn English?
0:10.5	We have a new easy video series just for them,
0:15.3	the London Letter Challenge.
0:18.0	Three teams race around London to find eight letters which will take them to the
0:24.0	winning crowns. Watch the series on our website now, BBC learningenglish.com.
0:38.1	Hello, this is... Six Minute English from BBC LearningEnglish.com.
0:45.0	Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
0:49.4	And I'm Beth. Neal, what is the oldest thing you have at home?
0:54.3	Oh, well, I do have some books from when I was a child.
0:58.6	I have a rocking horse that was my dad's, so that is quite old.
1:05.3	But neither of these are anywhere near as old as the 1800-year-old Roman coin, which BBC reporter Ryan Keane recently bought in London.
1:10.5	But soon afterwards, Ryan discovered there was more to the story,
1:14.3	as he explains here on BBC World Service programme Business Daily. But as I researched into other
1:20.2	kinds of ancient artefacts I could acquire, I came across reports of expansive criminal networks
1:26.0	related to antiquities. Some ancient artefacts being
1:29.5	sold online and in stores have been looted and trafficked. Ryan got interested in artefacts from
1:36.0	Egypt, Greece and Rome. An artefact is any object made by humans, usually very old, which is
1:43.1	historically interesting, for example, a coin or
1:45.8	statue. In the past, many artefacts have been looted or stolen by force. Movies like Indiana
1:53.5	Jones and Tomb Raider have made the subject popular, but the theft of ancient objects is a serious
2:00.0	problem in some parts of the world.
	...

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