Congress moves to undercut ISIS's black market for antiquities

WASHINGTON— The House of Representatives passed legislation this week to snuff out the Islamic State’s (ISIS) black market of pillaged cultural antiquities.

“The looting of antiquities is big business for ISIS,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “And unfortunately, buyers in the United States appear to be a primary end-destination for many of these pieces.”

Since taking footholds in Syria and Iraq, along with countless acts of violence, ISIS has ransacked ancient sites and destroyed valuable cultural artifacts. ISIS seeks to remove all traces of the region’s rich and diverse religious and cultural past. But what it does not destroy, ISIS traffics to buyers in the U.S. and Europe, allowing millions of dollars to flow into its coffers. The legislation would prevent the sale or import or those stolen antiquities in the U.S.

Last year, ISIS released video footage of its members demolishing ancient sculptures dating back to 900 B.C. in an Iraqi museum. The group was also seen destroying libraries in Mosul, Iraq, which boasted a rich scholarly community. And satellite images show thousands of illegal excavations in both Iraq and Syria, with visible hollows from drills and bulldozers around some of the world’s most important ancient ruins.

“We’re faced with the largest-scale mass destruction of cultural heritage since the Second World War,” France Desmarais of the International Council of Museums told The New York Times.

While advocating for the new legislation on the House floor, Royce also made parallels to World War II.

“These acts are in line with what the Nazis did in their era in burning books across Europe, in trying to burn history that predated them,” he said.

Most experts estimate ISIS has grossed tens of millions of dollars from selling stolen artifacts, peddled by middlemen distributors and online vendors such as eBay. But many pieces are hard to track, and the exact number of sales are unknown. Some suspect ISIS keeps warehouses of stolen goods until the buzz of their disappearance dies down.

Others claim ISIS is profiting far greater bounties from its pillaging.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin wrote in a letter to the United Nations Security Council that ISIS has illegally obtained 100,000 cultural objects of global importance, including control of 4,500 archaeological sites. He estimated the profit ISIS derives from “illicit trade in antiquities and archaeological treasures” is $150 million to $200 million per year.

The Senate passed its version of the bill earlier this year with bipartisan support. Now that the House has done the same, the bill will await President Barack Obama’s signature before becoming law.

If signed, the new law would not stop the importation of Iraqi and Syrian artifacts for preservation or restoration. Its sponsors say it would encourage administration agencies already working on the problem to collaborate more closely.

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., partnered with Royce to introduce the legislation. He said the world should be heartbroken over the ransacked historic sites and destruction of priceless items.

“These fanatics literally want to wipe away history,” Engel said. “They want to destroy any trace of any culture or belief system that doesn’t conform to their twisted ideology and twisted way of thinking.”