News

Trafficking Culture’s Simon Mackenzie has recently published a couple of articles on the trafficking of cultural objects in French and British media. In Alternatives Internationales, he has an article titled Pas de plan de vol pour le trafic d’objets d’art (‘No flight plan for traffic of works of art’). Meanwhile, in The Conversation, an article titled ‘While...

On Friday 7th February, Suzie Thomas is presenting a networked seminar as part of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Archaeology Seminar Series. The seminar, taking place from 1pm until 2pm, is titled ‘Understanding the international trade in trafficked cultural objects‘. Suzie’s presentation will be broadcast via Video Conferencing at the following UHI...

The University of Geneva, in partnership with UNESCO, is holding an international conference on 13 and 14 June 2014. The conference, ‘convening all those engaged in research and teaching in the field of Art and Cultural Heritage Law’, includes a session chaired by Simon Mackenzie. The session is titled ‘Beyond the Law: Fighting Illicit Traffic in the Field’, welcoming...

Today the Trafficking Culture team teach their first seminar in the new Masters course ‘International Trafficking in Cultural Objects’. The ten-week course, with sessions from Neil Brodie, Simon Mackenzie, Suzie Thomas and Donna Yates, also features sessions led by Dr Christa Roodt, who is a Lecturer in Art Law and Business at the University of Glasgow. The course is offered...

A new book has just been published by Vita e Pensiero in Milan, titled Beni culturali e sistema penale (Cultural heritage and the criminal justice system). The book, with chapters in both English and Italian, features a chapter co-authored by Neil Brodie, Jessica Dietzler and Simon Mackenzie, titled “Trafficking in cultural objects: an empirical overview”. The publication is edited by...

Suzie Thomas is speaking at the “Current Trends in Archaeological Heritage Preservation: The National and the International Perspectives” conference in Iaşi, Romania.

On 24 October, Neil Brodie will be in Ancient Olympia offering a keynote lecture at the Third International Conference of Experts on the Return of Cultural Property, organised by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, which takes place from 23-27 October. Neil will be talking about the role of auction houses in the illicit trade of cultural objects.

Trafficking Culture Research Associate Suzie Thomas will be giving the opening lecture at Archaeology Scotland’s Annual General Meeting this year. On Saturday 12 October, the Scotland-wide archaeological charity hold their AGM at the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow. Suzie’s presentation, titled “Trafficking Culture – Global Research at a Scottish...

Donna Yates is travelling to Vienna today to present at a training session hosted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Donna will be leading discussion about cultural property issues in a workshop on emerging crime. She will discuss the ways criminals circumvent the existing cultural property regulatory framework and are able to sell illegally-acquired cultural products on the open...

The Trafficking Culture team are delighted to welcome three new PhD candidates. The three are carrying out research that connects to the overall themes of the Trafficking Culture project, and so will be working closely with the various team members during their time at Glasgow. Meg Lambert starts a PhD having previously studied for a MRes in Criminology at Glasgow in the past year, while Annemiek...

For the past month Donna Yates has been in La Paz, Bolivia, conducting preliminary research into the looting of Andean churches and the trafficking of cultural property from these often-remote buildings. In 2013 alone there have been six major church robberies in Bolivia. Most troubling to Bolivians was the April 2013 robbery of the silver and gold embellishments of the Virgin of Copacabana;

Trafficking Culture’s Senior Research Fellow Neil Brodie has written a piece for SAFE – Saving Antiquities for Everyone...

On Friday, 26th of July, Donna Yates and Suzie Thomas both contributed to the Day of Archaeology. The Day of Archaeology project, which began in 2011 and is run by volunteers, aims to provide a window onto the daily lives of archaeologists from all over the world. The project asks people working, studying or volunteering in the archaeological world to participate by recording their day and...

Neil Brodie will be in Paris on 4 and 5 July at a meeting hosted by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) to discuss the the illicit traffic in cultural objects. It marks the launch of a major new initiative by ICOM on behalf on the international museums’ community aimed at monitoring the traffic and promoting appropriate normative standards. More news about the project will be...

Donna Yates met with a delegation from Bolivia’s Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional in Edinburgh yesterday. The Senators and Deputies, who are on an official visit to the UK, were touring Scotland and were keen to hear about  Donna’s previous and upcoming fieldwork in their country. A big ‘Thank You’ the Bolivian Embassy and the Bolivia Information Forum...

Trafficking Culture Researcher Tess Davis attended the official repatriation ceremony for two 10th century Khmer masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Kingdom of Cambodia. This took place on 16 June at the opening of the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is now being held in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The museum announced that it would voluntarily return the...

Last week, the Guardian’s University Guide 2014 placed Sociology at the University of Glasgow first in Scotland and second in the whole of the UK in its Sociology league table. The league table, published by the Guardian newspaper, is based on feedback and satisfaction levels from undergraduate students. League tables were compiled for all the major subject areas taught at...

A chapter by Donna Yates appears in a new book released this month by the Oxford University Press.

Trafficking Culture PhD researcher Jessica Dietzler is going to be a guest speaker at the ‘NYU-London Seminar: Art Crime Today–Fakes, Forgeries, and Stolen Art’. The course, run by New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, runs from 17th to 21st June. Jessica’s presentation, on the work of Trafficking Culture and an overview of research...

Neil Brodie is once again returning to the Cyclades to conduct archaeological survey work on the uninhabited island of Keros. This is follow-up work stemming from excavations conducted with Cambridge University’s Keros Project, which is led by Trafficking Culture friend Colin Renfrew. It is a continuation of fieldwork carried out on Keros over several seasons, including last summer.