There has been a catastrophic loss of archaeological knowledge across Eastern Europe (and North Asia). It has been worsened by intensified looting in occupied Crimea and the occupied Donbas and further worsened by pillaging by invading fighters and expropriation by invading forces since the initiation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014.
Innumerable pieces of archaeological evidence have been stolen for private collections and huge volumes of the archaeological record have been destroyed in the process, in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Face-to-face and online trafficking are too intensive and extensive to be monitored and investigated effectively by the available cultural heritage specialists and law enforcement agents.
This presentation will review the scale of extraction and damage across the region; differences in artefact-hunting and policing across the region, including artefact-hunting by law enforcement agents; the changes that have been induced by destabilisation and conflict; the community’s identity, public representation and public resistance to legal regulation; the distinctive demographics of artefact-hunters in Eastern Europe; and the interactions between demographics and criminal coping economies, including artefact-hunting by cannabis-cultivators.
In light of these factors, it will consider the participation of artefact-hunters in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine as combatants, officials in occupation administrations and collaborators; the contribution of pillaging to the war effort; and the contribution of ordinary looting to the conflict economy.
About the research project
In DECOPE (Destructive Exploitation and Care of Cultural Objects. Professional/Public Education for sustainable heritage management), researchers in Norway, Scotland, and Spain address the challenges of providing helpful and appropriate care for cultural heritage in conflict and post-conflict environments, focusing on Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine.
About the lecturers
Josephine Munch Rasmussen is principal investigator of the JPI Project Cultural Heritage in Conflict Areas (DECOPE) and Senior Researcher at NIKU. She is a leading capacity in research on looting and illicit trade of cultural heritage, and how academics and museums in many cases have contributed to the destruction of heritage from war and conflict zones.
Sam Hardy is associate researcher of the JPI Project Cultural Heritage in Conflict Areas (DECOPE). In addition, he is an internationally renowned researcher with a background in archaeology, cultural heritage studies, socio-legal studies and open-source research. He focuses on financing and incentivisation of political violence with cultural goods, but also covers other aspects of cultural property crime during conflict and crisis. Sam has done consultancies for Global Witness, UNESCO, ICOM and the Antiquities Coalition. He is an Expert in the Alliance to Counter Crime Online. Sam has contributed to training of cultural heritage workers, law enforcement agents and peacekeepers in Europe and West Asia.