Looting History

The looting of ancient cities has become big business for the poor in the area of ancient city of Mortgantina. Located on the island of Sicily, Mortgantina was the last Greek hold out on the island against the Roman armies in the 3^rd century B.C. The city lay buried for 1900 years until Princeton University began excavations in 1955. The contrast that exists is shown by a chance meeting in 1968 between Mascara, a tombaroli (tomb raider) who was raiding a site and Malcolm Bell, an American archeologist. Mascara has been arrested many times attempting to loot antiquities. What has been created is a black market in ancient artifacts that involves museums throughout the Western world including even the mafia. Stille goes into great detail about Cammarata who was arrested for smuggling trafficking of antiquities including to private collectors inside the United States. able.

In 1972 the United States ratified the UNESCO treaty making the smuggling of antiquities illegal. Museums, i.e. Getty and Metropolitan, have spent millions of dollars to purchase these artifacts. And in only the last few years have these museums become interested in helping to deal with this illegal smuggling trade.

Should these museums be required to return these artifacts being if not for the smuggling of these items they may never have been discovered. Some believe that the restrictive Italian laws are part of the problem. The laws have created fear among Italian collectors about purchasing illegal artifacts thus the items are sold overseas. Another question arises because the city of Mortgantina was a Greek city not Italian. Should the artifacts be considered Greek or Italian?