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Antiquities Still at Risk, Experts Warn

September 24, 2015

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Antiquities Still at Risk, Experts Warn

By RICK GLADSTONE

SEPT. 24, 2015

The pillaging of antiquities by Islamic State militants is thriving in Syria and Iraq despite efforts to counter it, Middle East officials and archaeological experts  said Thursday at a conference on the illicit trafficking of artifacts. Irina Bokova, the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said all six Unesco World Heritage sites in Syria had been damaged in that country’s war, including the most recent destruction in the ancient city of Palmyra. “Culture has always been a victim of war, but what we’re seeing today is new,” Ms. Bokova said at the Asia Society in New York.

 

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