Digging In: The Latest from Antiquities Coalition
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This year, the Antiquities Coalition has been at the center of major developments in the global fight against cultural racketeering. From Capitol Hill to Kathmandu, we’re seeing growing momentum for reform—and meaningful steps toward accountability, justice, and the return of looted heritage.
Read on for the latest updates, resources, and more.
Spotlight
💰 Congress Takes Aim at Dirty Money in the Multi-Billion Dollar U.S. Art Market
Yesterday, Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dave McCormick (R-PA), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the Art Market Integrity Act, a commonsense proposal to apply anti-money laundering (AML) safeguards to high-risk art transactions. For years, criminals have exploited the art market’s regulatory gaps to move and hide illicit funds, finance armed conflict and terrorism, and evade U.S. sanctions. This bipartisan bill fights back through the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)—a key tool for detecting and preventing financial crime—in recognition of the American art market’s global significance and its growing role in the domestic economy.
The Art Market Integrity Act is a smart, pragmatic, and long-overdue step to protect a multi-billion dollar industry from criminal abuse. Right now, the United States is the last major art market without basic safeguards against money laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing. This puts our legitimate businesses at risk while others, including the U.K., EU, Switzerland, and even China, have already acted. Aligning with these global standards should not be burdensome—many U.S. dealers already comply with them abroad—but it will help preserve the integrity of the market here at home and keep the U.S. a competitive and trusted leader in the global art and antiquities trade. — AC Chairman and Founder Deborah Lehr
🔍 Dig Deeper
📣 Read our press release.
📋 Download and share our Fact Sheet on the BSA and the Art Market.
💲 Revisit our Financial Crimes Task Force Report, which identified this reform as a top recommendation to fight cultural racketeering and protect the cultural property market.
📰 Hear directly from our Chairman and Founder Deborah Lehr on why this change is needed, from her op-eds in The Hill, Artnet News, and Financial Times.
📝 AC Revisits Landmark Policy Brief with Author Rick St. Hilaire
Nearly a decade ago, Attorney Ricardo "Rick" St. Hilaire published the landmark policy brief How to End Impunity for Antiquities Traffickers, warning that the U.S. government’s “seize and send” approach wasn’t enough to stop the illicit trade. Unfortunately, that remains true today—and his call for dedicated prosecutors is more urgent than ever.
The Antiquities Coalition sat down with St. Hilaire to mark the brief’s re-release and discuss how the fight against antiquities trafficking has changed—and what still needs to be done.
The bottom line is that federal prosecutors to this day are still taking steps far too small and inconsequential to deter cultural heritage crime. That must change.
🔍 Dig Deeper
🎙️ Check out the full interview here.
📘 Read the policy brief here.
💻 Find more insights on Rick St. Hilaire's blog here.
🌐 High-Level UN Forum Co-Sponsored by the AC Advances Stronger Criminal Justice Responses to Cultural Racketeering
On May 22, Ambassador Yasser Elnaggar (member of the Advisory Council of the Antiquities Coalition) joined leaders from government, law enforcement, and civil society for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property: Towards Stronger Criminal Justice Frameworks. This high-level convening, co-sponsored by the Antiquities Coalition, was part of the 34th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ)—the United Nations’ principal policy making body for combating crime and upholding the rule of law.
In addition to Ambassador Elnaggar, senior representatives spoke from Egypt, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, as well as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). These included UNODC Director-General Ghada Waly and H.E. Amira Fahmy, Egypt’s Assistant Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. This event marked another step forward in ongoing efforts to fight back against this illicit trade and better protect the multi-billion-dollar art market from criminal exploitation.
“The CCPCJ has a unique opportunity to make a difference on this issue. Such action is especially needed because criminals, as always, are adapting. Today, we are confronting a broader and more complex landscape, in which cultural property is not just exploited by looters and traffickers—but for a wide range of crimes—including corruption, fraud and forgery, money laundering, sanctions and evasion, terrorist financing, and the abuse of offshore jurisdictions, shell companies, and trusts.” — Ambassador Yasser Elnaggar
🔍 Dig Deeper
☑️ Read our recommendations for the UN, CCPCJ, and all Member States here.
🏺 Learn more UNODC's work on cultural racketeering here.
In Case You Missed It
🎥 AC Highlights how Documentary Films Drive Global Action for Cultural Heritage
On the margins of the International Conference on the Recovery of Cultural Heritage—hosted in Kathmandu by the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign and Nepal’s Department of Archaeology—participants gathered for a powerful evening of film and dialogue on justice, healing, and the return of sacred antiquities.
The screening featured four acclaimed documentaries:
🎬 Dahomey (dir. Mati Diop) – on Benin’s royal treasures and colonial legacies
🎬 Have You Seen My Gods? (dir. Amitabh Joshi) – on Nepal’s Lakshmi-Narayan statue
🎬 Artifact War (dir. Carpenter & Schwarz) – on Syrian heritage and terror finance
🎬 LOOT (dir. Don Millar) – on Cambodian antiquities and the decades-long fight for restitution, including work by AC Executive Director Tess Davis
Following the films, AC hosted a panel discussion with filmmakers and cultural heritage experts to reflect on the human cost of cultural racketeering—and the path to justice.
💡 Learn more about all of the films here, and more about Dahomey here.
🇳🇵 Read the full conference outcomes here.
🔈 Hear more about the work of our Executive Director Tess Davis from Director Don Millar here.
👔 Tailoring Museum Policy: AC Releases the 2025 Looks vs. Loot
As the Met Gala dazzled on May 5, the Antiquities Coalition launched its third annual Looks vs. Loot campaign, spotlighting the darker side of the iconic venue: its ongoing ties to looted antiquities.
In a promising shift, the Met has begun addressing its role in the illicit trade—appointing its first head of provenance, expanding its research team, and forming internal committees to review legal and ethical standards. These steps mirror key recommendations from the Antiquities Coalition, marking meaningful progress toward accountability and reform.
👗 Check out all of the looks here.
☑️ Read our recommendations here.
🇸🇩 AC Sheds Light on Sudan’s Heritage Emergency and the Path Forward
Following years of conflict in Sudan, the dust is finally settling in its capital city of Khartoum—revealing evidence of mass-looting, ravaged museums, and empty historical archives. Despite herculean efforts on the ground, Sudan’s people continue to suffer one of the greatest cultural crises in recent history.
One of Sudan’s most dedicated heritage professionals, Ali Nour, and AC Director of Programs Helena Arose, highlight Sudan’s cultural crisis and call for stronger heritage protections in the latest AC LinkedIn article.
⚠️ Read the article here.
Feature
Want more Podcasts on the Illicit Trade? Check out Basilinna Institute Tholos Talks
The Basilinna Institute, part of the leading global advisory firm Basilinna, recently launched Tholos Talks, a podcast inspired by the spirit of the ancient Greek tholos—a circle where intellectuals gathered to debate the pressing issues of their time. The AC is proud to partner on one of its featured series, "Understanding the Thriving Trade in Looted Antiquities."
In the premiere episode of the series, Deborah Lehr, Basilinna CEO, and Chairman and Founder of the Antiquities Coalition, sits down with Ambassador Irina Bokova to discuss a fundamental question: What is the role of culture, and does it matter? The pair delve into the significance of cultural heritage, its impact on identity and community, and why preserving it is crucial for future generations.
Subsequent episodes feature Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large Richard Kurin, former HSI agent and cultural protection expert J.P. Labbat, and our own Executive Director Tess Davis, who joins Lehr to explore the dark side of the art market—from tomb raiders and smugglers to how Kim Kardashian helped recover the Golden Mummy.
🎙️ Listen in:
Follow Basillina on LinkedIn to catch the latest episodes here.
Follow the Antiquities Coalition on our social channels (X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Instagram) for the latest news and developments in the fight to combat looting.