The Underworld of ISIS Art Smugglers
Two art traders involved in a trading network that sells millions of dollars worth of ancient art and artifacts stolen by the Islamic State have shared details behind how valued pieces of Iraqi and Syrian history went from the hands of cold-blooded terrorists to collectors in the West.
In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, Syrian art traders, defectors and antiquities experts helped explain how the terrorist group profited handsomely from an international supply chain that is flipping antiquities, relics and artifacts looted by the group and made lucrative profits possible.