Congress deals blow to IS looting in Syria
The House passed legislation that would make it illegal to import stolen artifacts.
House lawmakers passed legislation June 1 that would make it illegal to sell looted artifacts from Syria, dealing a blow to the Islamic State’s finances and agenda.
The unanimous vote comes amid a worldwide effort to draw attention to the extremist group’s attempt to erase any trace of other faiths. Officials are also worried that the looting, aided by purchases from unscrupulous buyers in the United States and elsewhere, is contributing tens of millions of dollars to Islamic State (IS) coffers.
“By now we’ve all seen footage of [IS] extremists taking sledgehammers to ancient, irreplaceable artifacts across the territory they control,” bill sponsor Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said in floor remarks before the vote. “These are not random acts of vandalism. We are witnessing a deliberate campaign to rewrite world history. From the Tomb of Jonah in Mosul to Yazidi shrines in Sinjar, [IS] is leveling sites that preserve a record of the region’s rich and diverse past.”
Engel’s bill, which has yet to be introduced in the Senate, calls on the State Department to create a red list of objects at risk of looting that customs officials and art dealers should be on the lookout for. Illegally imported objects could also be seized, with the hope that they could one day be returned to Syria.
