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Looting Matters: US Extends Agreement With Italy over Antiquities
Whoopee, eh? But US dealers are still talking about their "rights" to buy as many illegally exported items as they and their clients like not only from Italy but every other state party to the UNESCO 1970 Convention. So what does this pathetic piece of paper really mean? It means that the US is not actually really at all serious about its commitment to preserving the world's archaeological heritage from the depredations of which the massive US no-questions-asked-market is the main motor, accounting (according to one ACCG dealer) for half the global market ("That archaeological interests are now paramount is not what the drafters of the statutory authority contemplated"). Its time for the US and the EU to get tough with the antiqipirates.