No official at the symposium was able to cite a single prosecution growing out of the intelligence gathered by the Special Operations Forces that night in May. Yet for all the drama surrounding Keller’s announcement, and all the promise it seemed to hold, it’s not clear that any of the leads have born fruit. There were edicts threatening punishment for those looting antiquities without permission, and there were licenses for those permitted to pillage.
So there were receipts for the taxes collected from looters-$265,000 worth, on artifacts with a value ISIS estimated at more than $1.3 million. As with many tyrannical regimes, in the would-be “caliphate” the apparatchiks are careful to document their work. Perfect for smuggling with minimum risk and maximum profit.īut, more importantly, the special forces also found records kept by the ISIS bureaucracy. The artifacts, which were turned over to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad on July 15, were exquisitely portable. The special ops guys found extraordinary bits of sculpture, gold jewelry, and coins-like some treasure hoarded by Ali Baba. At a symposium on “Conflict Antiquities” held at New York’s Metropolitan Museum on Tuesday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Keller presented newly declassified evidence collected by the American commandoes who took out Abu Sayyaf.