THE Whatsapp message appeared on his iPhone: photos of an ancient Mesopotamian vase worth $250 000 (R3.05 billion), part of a highly-valued set, is waiting to be extracted.
The recipient, Amr Al Azm, replied that he was interested. How to proceed? A message from a different account followed. The vase could be smuggled through Lebanon. Al Azm, an anthropology professor in Ohio, was faking it, as he does when photos of looted antiquities are sent to him in the belief that he is a collector or dealer. He is a detective – self-appointed – hoping to save some of mankind’s rarest and most vulnerable artefacts by tracking the burgeoning antiquities trade of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The world went into shock earlier this year after Islamic State released videos of its bearded operatives smashing ancient artworks with sledgehammers and drills. But after US-led airstrikes on refineries and tankers reduced the group’s $1 million daily oil revenue by nearly two-thirds, the razing gave way to looting for sale via eBay, Facebook and Whatsapp.
The self-declared caliphate is now a growing player in the $3bn global antiquities market. Willingly or not, buyers are filling the extremists’ coffers. – Bloomberg