News

As part of an Erasmus+ Mobility Grant, Dr Emiline Smith will be teaching at Hong Kong University from 27 September until 11 October. She will also be giving two public lectures: “Chasing the Unicorn”: The Seduction of Trading lllicit Antiquities (4PM, 2 October, Hong Kong University) and Illicit Trade in the Global City: The Roots and Routes of the Illicit Antiquities Trade in Hong Kong...

Congratulations to Dr Emiline Smith who has been awarded a grant for the project “Global synchronization and the illicit antiquities trade: understanding community crime prevention in post-earthquake Nepal and Myanmar” from the Scottish Funding Council’s Global Challenges Research Fund scheme. Together with Phacharaphorn Phanomvan na Ayudhya (Oxford University), Myanmar...

We are happy to announce that the new book, The Market for Mesoamerica: Reflections on the Sale of Pre-Columbian Antiquities, co-edited by our Donna Yates and Dr Cara Tremain is now available through the University Press of Florida. You can order the book here: http://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813056449 Use discount code AU719 before 31 July for 50% off the list price. The Market for...

Dr Emiline Smith spoke at the Asian Criminological Society Annual Meeting, held in Cebu from 23–26 June, which was themed ‘Contextualizing Challenges in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia’ (see http://www.11thacsannualconference.com/). The very successful conference was attended by over 200 participants. Speakers represented a wide variety of emerging research originating from and...

Professor Simon Mackenzie will be speaking at and serving as resource person for Sub-regional Executive Symposium for Ministerial Officials on International Cooperation to Protect Cultural Properties and Curriculum and Methodology Review Meeting, from 10 to 14 June 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. This symposium, designed by UNESCO, aims to create a high-level network of decision makers in this area...

On January 4, 2019 in San Diego, California, at the 140th Annual Meeting of the Council of the Archaeological Institute of America, Dr Neil Brodie was elected as a Corresponding Member of the AIA for achieving eminence as one of the leading researchers in the field of cultural heritage protection and the trade in antiquities. For more details,...

Dr Neil Brodie will be speaking at UN House, in Mishref, Kuwait, as part of a “national capacity building and awareness raising programme” targeting experts in the field of culture. Dr Brodie’s talk is entitled “Understanding the international market in illicit cultural objects”. Further information, including the programme for the event, is available...

Brodie’s talk, entitled “The structure and organisation of the antiquities trade: results of some recent research”, will form part of “Fighting the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property”, a training workshop hosed by UNESCO and the EU for European judiciary and law enforcement. Event attendance is by invitation only. More information about speakers at this event...

Part-time, teaching-focused position funded for at least 5 years!

For the next few months, Dr Christos Tsirogiannis will be in Denmark at Aarhus University. There he will be visiting as Associate Professor in the Museum of Ancient Art and Archaeology, within the School of Culture and Society.

The talk, titled “Ancient Art and Modern Crime: How Stolen Antiquities End Up In Our Most Respected Museums”, will be part of Carlton University’s Shannon Lecture Series. All are invited to attend this free lecture in room 252 of Carleton University’s MacOdrum Library at 2:30p.m. A reception will follow. For more...

For the project “Trafficking transformations: objects as agents in transnational criminal networks”

We are pleased to announce that Emiline Smith has passed her PhD viva with flying colours. Emiline’s dissertation, entitled “Illicit Markets in the Global City: The Cultural Property Trade in Hong Kong”, is the product of a year of dedicated fieldwork on the movement of cultural objects through the region. Her work expands upon the idea of Hong Kong as a global city, taking a...

With partner Ecorys, Neil Brodie and Donna Yates have been selected to complete European Commission EAC/06/2017 “Improving Knowledge on Illicit Trade in Cultural Goods in the EU”.

Dr Christos Tsirogiannis will be speaking at the McDonal Lunchtime Seminar Series at the University of Cambridge’s McDonald Institute of Archaeology. The title of his talk is “Recent Developments in Illicit Antiquities Research” and it will take place on Wednesday, 17 January 2018, 13.15 pm in the McDonald Institute Seminar Room, Courtyard Building, Downing Site.

“Radiocarbon dating and protection of cultural heritage” has been organized by ETH Zurich and University of Geneva, with a support of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Commission for UNESCO, Bern. Yates will be speaking about the antiquities market as a “grey market” with a special focus on how the actions of professionals and experts supports and...

Prof. Mackenzie’s talk is entitled Policing white-collar crime and organised crime in international markets in trafficked cultural objects. The public lecture will be held on Monday 6 November from 7 to 8:30pm. More information is available from the Criminology Department at Wilfred Laurier University. An abstract for the talk is below: This talk will consider the challenges of policing...

Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis’ work has been featured on The History Channel’s website: In August 2004, Christos Tsirogiannis got a message that would change his life. Would he be interested in accompanying the Athens police on a raid? It might not seem like a job for an archaeologist, but police told him they might need his expertise once they got there. He agreed, got in an unmarked...

Organised by Professor Duncan Chappell, Dr Saskia Hufnagel, and Ms Marissa Marjos, this is the third of three AHRC-funded Art Crime focused workshops, the first two of which were in London and were great. This workshop specifically focuses on the looting, plunder, and destruction of heritage. Yates will be be providing a regional case study: trafficking of antiquities in and out of Latin...

The theme of this year’s ARA conference is ‘Challenge the Past, Set the Agenda’. Dr Brodie’s keynote, held on 1 Sept from 9:30 to 10:20 am, is entitled: “Scholarly Engagement with Unprovenanced Ancient Manuscripts”: There is increasing concern in the UK and Republic of Ireland about the risk of theft, destruction or illicit disposal of cultural heritage, though...