The effects of the illicit antiquities and art trade.
Art trafficking is the fourth-largest international criminal trade, after drugs, weapons and financial products, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. It is increasingly being used by insurgent groups in conflict areas as stolen art and antiquities allow them to bypass regulations intended to prevent their moving and laundering funds.
IS’s territorial losses might see the group increasingly turn to antiquity theft to raise operational funds.
The art trade is encouraging links between criminal actors (for example mafia groups in Italy) and terrorist ones (IS in Syria and Libya).
Yet, in Syria, antiquities looting and trading is also happening outside IS-controlled areas, fuelling the conflict.
