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Larry Rothfeld is reporting (Who Are the Looters? An Example from El Hibeh ) that on the El Hibeh facebook page from which I am blocked there was a report that the man Abu Kotia who US Egyptologist Carol Redmount accuses of being behind the recent looting of the site and threatening the Inspectors is out of the game:
Whether or not the looting at El Hibeh will stop because one thug with a gun shot another thug with a gun remains to be seen, its more than likely that the conflict was over control of this lucrative "small business" rather than a white-hat villager taking the role of sheriff and trying to stop the criminals like in a bad western.
Larry Rothfeld is reporting (Who Are the Looters? An Example from El Hibeh ) that on the El Hibeh facebook page from which I am blocked there was a report that the man Abu Kotia who US Egyptologist Carol Redmount accuses of being behind the recent looting of the site and threatening the Inspectors is out of the game:
about two weeks ago, Abu Kotia was shot (by whom I'm not sure) and wound up in the local hospital, where he died. I'm still trying to get further details. I very much hope that this means the looting at Hibeh has or will stop, but who knows at this point. If and when I get more details I will post them.Larry points out this says a lot about who the diggers supplying the antiquities market are ("hint: not just otherwise nice people driven to dig by poverty who could easily be convinced to go legal if only they were given a stake in sustainable tourism"). While he thinks there needs to be more "policing" (antiquities tax to pay for it) and "investigative journalism and public pressure" to get the criminals out of society (yeah, yeah), the obvious key point here is that criminals can only make money by selling old bits of rotten wood, carved rocks and pots because there are a whole group of people perfectly willing to buty them from criminals. They do it because there are a whole bunch of people all over the world that will quite happily buy stuff, no-questions-asked, which has been bought from those who have no qualms about buying from criminals. That is the key to the problem. Breaking the chain at the interface with the market costs no source countries any money, no taxes, nobody gets shot. Collectors just have to start buying responsibly. No more blood antiquities, no more encouraging criminals, no more dodgy stuff, no more self-deception. And if they find it hard to take that first step themselves, the authorities in the market countries need to take a step to jog them into action. Jail a few smugglers and those selling illegally obtained items.
Whether or not the looting at El Hibeh will stop because one thug with a gun shot another thug with a gun remains to be seen, its more than likely that the conflict was over control of this lucrative "small business" rather than a white-hat villager taking the role of sheriff and trying to stop the criminals like in a bad western.
