Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Heritage focused on art and antiquities crime is centered around the research presented within the first workshop of a three-part series entitled “Changing Hands, Changing Meanings: Researching Cultural Heritage Trafficking in the Nordic Region”, funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences.  The workshop, entitled “Investigating and Policing Antiquities Trafficking and Forgery in a Digital Age”, was held at Stockholm University from the 25–26 April 2019. While some contributions to this Special Issue will come from presentations at the workshop itself, others will come from researchers actively engaged in related research.

The global licit and illicit trade in antiquities of all types, including prehistoric and historic archaeological artifacts, texts, human remains, rare books, and so on, continues to grow and shift in today’s increasingly digital world. The existence of these ever-evolving markets therefore continues to threaten humanity’s shared heritage and what can be known about the past through archaeological and epigraphic research. Furthermore, the creation of forgeries of numerous categories of artefact and text continue to elude detection and trick scholars, as techniques become ever more sophisticated and forgers can more readily access academic research and use it to their advantage. Once thought to be the key to suppressing or disrupting antiquities markets, it no longer appears that this is the case. In addition, the supply and demand for antiquities have moved beyond eBay and high-end auction houses, with markets today flourishing on other poorly policed e-commerce platforms and, even more problematic, social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, as well as the possibility of antiquities trafficking on the “Dark Web”—an especially difficult platform to monitor. Many such platforms have “terms of service” that allegedly bar users from participating in illicit activities, but these are poorly enforced. The global legal landscape is also uneven, and the digital realm has proven to be very challenging to legislate.

In relation to the above, this Special Issue seeks contributions that include the following:

• Research that details the challenges faced in policing antiquities trafficking and forgery across e-commerce platforms and social media, from either an academic or practitioner perspective.
• Research that details best practice for antiquities trafficking and forgery investigation and prevention, especially when dealing with digital data. The research presented can be quantitative (presenting new robust analyses of large datasets) or qualitative (contextualized investigation of case studies).
• Research detailing the categories of data that Nordic and international law enforcement prioritizes when investigating cases, as well as research detailing and explaining what academic and scientific research can reliably provide to law enforcement.

Dr. Damien Huffer
Guest Editor

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