The Illicit Antiquities Trade As A Funding Source For Terrorism: Is Blockchain The Solution?

The Illicit Antiquities Trade As A Funding Source For Terrorism: Is Blockchain The Solution?

Journal article

35 pages

0736-7694

Part I of this Note discusses the history of the industry surrounding looted antiquities. This Part traces the process in which the looted antiquity enters the legitimate art market. Next, this Part analyzes how the art industry in the United States contributes to the illicit funding of ISIS, explaining the roles that art dealers, collectors, and museums play in this process. Lastly, this Part introduces the relevant legal doctrines that set the stage for the thriving industry of looted antiquities, including the UNESCO 1970 Convention, the HEAR Act, and relevant common law. In PartII of this Note, there is a discussion of antiquity provenance and the inadequacies of the widely-adopted systems implemented for tracing antiquity provenance. Part III of this Note introduces the modern developments of the blockchain tracing system, discussing how blockchain functions as a digitized and decentralized tracing system with a specific focus on blockchain for art title registry. This Note concludes, in Part IV, by explaining how the blockchain for art provenance has the potential to serve as a tool for both preventing transfers of looted antiquities and prosecuting such illicit transfers. In turn, the adoption of the blockchain for antiquity provenance proposal will serve as a means of achieving the larger initiative of decreasing funding for terrorist groups.

Published in : Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law, vol. 37, no. 1 (2019)

[New York City, New York] : Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 2019.

eng