Through the country’s almost perpetual status as a war zone in recent years, Afghanistan’s heritage has suffered greatly at the hands of looters. Many of the artefacts taken from the country, then end up on sale through art dealers & auction houses in the West. Operation Syenite is the name being given to a new initiative in Britain, which hopes to focus on this problem. The largest part of the problems though, as it has been throughout history, is that there will always be unscrupulous collectors who are willing to purchase the looted artefacts by whatever means. Whilst there remains a market for the looters to sell to, it seems likely that the looting will continue in some form.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Police to clamp down on trade in looted Afghan art
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 21/10/2008

Police to clamp down on trade in looted Afghan art Unscrupulous art galleries that deal in looted Afghan art could face prosecution under a new police initiative.

The Metropolitan Police has just started Operation Syenite to clamp down on the sale of art stolen from Afghanistan.

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Just as Lord Elgin did over two hundred years ago, other people today continue to take advantage of political situations around the world as a means to acquire artefacts that might not otherwise be available for purchase. Unlike in Elgin’s time though, there are now numerous laws & statutes in place that are supposed to prevent such actions taking place,

From:
Press TV (Iran)

Afghan manuscripts sold for a morsel
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:10:46

Keeping body and soul together, poor Afghan families put their priceless handwritten books under the hammer in the war torn country.

The manuscripts have bee taken to museums in Britain, France and Germany and the appeal to UNESCO to restore the books has failed so far, said Habib-ullah Takhari, the Afghan cultural attaché in Tehran.

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