The author reports from northern Iraq, contrasting careful archaeological recovery at Usu Aska with destructive looting at Murad Rasu. He argues that the illicit antiquities trade fuels organized crime and undermines national security, and criticizes current U.S. enforcement for relying on a weak "seize and send" approach. He calls for a small, specialized team of prosecutors to pursue cultural-property crimes in coordination with federal agencies and urges pairing preservation abroad with prosecution at home.
Looted Past, Weakened Future: Why the U.S. Must Prosecute Antiquities Traffickers
I recently returned from northern Iraq and witnessed two sharply contrasting realities that lay bare the stakes of cultural heritage protection: careful archaeological recovery at Usu Aska and wholesale destruction by looters at Murad Rasu. Those opposing scenes reveal how the illicit antiquities trade robs communities of history and fuels transnational crime.
At the ancient fortress of Usu Aska, archaeologists uncovered a Parthian-era coin beside the jawbone of a buried man. Because the coin was recovered in situ, it anchored the burial to a moment nearly 2,000 years ago, transforming an anonymous grave into a datable fragment of human history.
Not far away, the landscape at Murad Rasu was pockmarked with deep looters’ pits that have erased archaeological context. These holes tell a different story: theft, irreversible loss, and the destruction of knowledge that cannot be reclaimed.
Why Context Matters
When artifacts are excavated carefully and documented, they produce knowledge: layers can be dated, trade routes reconstructed, and human behavior illuminated. When those same objects are ripped from the ground and sold, their scientific value is lost forever — and they become the proceeds of crime.
Small, portable items like ancient coins are particularly vulnerable. Their size and market demand make them easy to smuggle and sell, yet a coin found in context can date an entire archaeological layer and link broader cultural and economic networks.
Crime, Corruption, And National Security
The illegal antiquities trade is not a niche hobbyist problem. It overlaps with transnational organized crime, customs fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorist groups, as recent conflicts demonstrated. Demand for unprovenanced pieces fuels organized looting abroad and smuggling into markets that tolerate or enable illicit trade.
As an attorney with 25 years of experience in cultural-heritage law, including service on the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee, I have seen how weak enforcement and market demand perpetuate this destructive cycle.
“Seize and send”: Too often federal practice ends with confiscation and a photo op, while traffickers escape meaningful prosecution. That approach sacrifices evidence, denies accountability and fails to deter future crime.
A Path Forward
U.S. law already restricts importation of undocumented antiquities from countries at risk of cultural pillage, but enforcement must do more than recover objects. Congress and the Department of Justice should create a small, specialized prosecutorial team focused on cultural-property crime — modeled on successful units that handle wildlife and natural-resources offenses.
Such a team would develop expertise, steer investigations and coordinate across Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and state prosecutors to pursue criminal cases that lead to convictions, asset forfeiture and the dismantling of trafficking networks. A handful of dedicated prosecutors could change the incentives and make trafficking a riskier enterprise.
Stronger enforcement complements preservation efforts abroad. Recent collaboration between the United States and Iraq — including the proposed cultural-heritage research and training center in Mosul — is a welcome step, but preservation must be matched by prosecution at home. Without credible consequences for traffickers operating in the U.S., diplomatic and educational programs will be undermined.
Protecting cultural heritage is not only about art or archaeology: it is about the rule of law, national security and international credibility. Effective enforcement disrupts illicit finance, reinforces alliances and upholds lawful trade.
Conclusion
Standing between the carefully excavated trenches at Usu Aska and the looters’ pits at Murad Rasu made the stakes unmistakable: one side offered scholarship, stewardship and community; the other, plunder and erasure. Congress and the White House should treat transnational antiquities trafficking with the seriousness it deserves — funding preservation and training abroad while building prosecutorial capacity at home to end impunity for traffickers and complicit dealers.
Rick St. Hilaire is an attorney practicing cultural-heritage law, a former chief prosecutor, and a former presidential appointee to the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee at the State Department.
