NATIONAL H E RITAG E OR INT E RNATIONAL COMMODITY ? TH E S ITUATION IN CHINA - TAASA Review March 2010

NATIONAL H E RITAG E OR INT E RNATIONAL COMMODITY ? TH E S ITUATION IN CHINA – TAASA Review March 2010

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This article was originally found in the March 2010 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 24).

The full article is available for free to TAASA Members.

Philip Courtenay T he looting of and illicit trade in antiquities is a worldwide problem, with the true size of the international market obscured by the privacy with which such selling takes place.

Interpol has reported that observers commonly rank it as the third largest type of black-market trafficking after drugs and armaments.

Estimates of the annual global value of the trade have varied from between US$2 and 4 billion a year to as high as US$10 billion...