Financial Times Highlights New Report Co-Authored by the Antiquities Coalition
October 26, 2026
The Financial Times spotlights The Great Giveback: Analysis of the Museum of Looted Antiquities Dataset, a new joint report by the Museum of Looted Antiquities and the Antiquities Coalition examining the return of looted cultural objects to their countries of origin.
Drawing on nearly 1,400 cases involving more than one million cultural objects documented by the Museum of Looted Antiquities, the report provides evidence-backed findings to help policymakers assess repatriation trends, identify gaps, and determine where further action is needed to combat the looting and trafficking of antiquities.
A major part of understanding the looting and trafficking of antiquities is identifying objects’ trajectories from sites to buyers, and through markets, collections, and institutions. Increasingly, one of the most visible records of that journey is repatriation—the return of an object to its country of origin.
While repatriation events often generate public and media attention, essential information about the objects, parties, circumstances, and mechanisms involved may be unavailable or inconsistent.
This report aims to fill that gap through analyzing over 1,000,000 objects to form a basis of evidence to assess the current landscape, identify what is working and where gaps remain, and determine where further action is needed.
By analyzing this data, the report helps build a clearer picture of how cultural objects move through markets, collections, and institutions—and what these journeys reveal about efforts to protect cultural heritage.
Read the Financial Times feature, here.
Read the full report below.