A Special Live Debate: Do Archaeologists Have an Ethical Obligation to Report Looting?

April 23, 2020

You’re a field archaeologist, you watch a looter walk away with artifacts — and you don’t report the looting. Are you in the wrong?

Yes, says Prof. Blythe Balestrieri in the most recent Antiquities Coalition Policy Brief. She found many field archaeologists admit to inaction when they encounter looting, and calls for change.

But some field archaeologists challenge her and say it’s not so black and white.

Join us for a special online debate as experts argue different answers to this important ethical question, live, April 29th at 11 AM Eastern. Moderated by Antiquities Coalition Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors Deborah Lehr.

The Debaters:

Blythe Balestrieri

Associate Professor of Criminal Justice in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. She authored the Policy Brief “Do Archaeologists Have an Ethical Obligation to Report Looting? Protecting Antiquities and an ‘Ethical Double Standard’”

Luis Jaime Castillo

Professor of Archaeology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Foreign Associate at the National Academy of Sciences, and Director of the San Jose de Moro Archaeological Program. He previously served as Vice-Minister of Culture, Peru.

Ramadan Badry Hussein

Director of the Saqqara Saite Tombs Project at the Institute for Near Eastern Studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He previously served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Antiquities, Egypt, and has excavated in Giza, Saqqara and Baharyya Oasis.

Luigi Marini

Justice Luigi Marini serves at the Italian High Court (Court of Cassation) in Rome. He was most recently senior advisor to the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations specializing in cultural heritage preservation.

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