"Looted Afghan art smuggled into UK" --Sunday Times (UK)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2081457,00.html

The Sunday Times - World

The Sunday Times March 12, 2006

Looted Afghan art smuggled into UK
Christina Lamb

UP TO four tons of ancient Afghan artefacts have been seized in Britain after an unprecedented wave of looting from archeological sites in Afghanistan that has exceeded the plundering of treasures in Iraq.

“All the attention has been on Iraq but this is a far, far bigger problem,” said Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley, who heads the art and antiques unit of the Metropolitan police. “Afghanistan is the main source of unprovenanced antiquities into Britain. It’s coming in by air freight, sea freight, DHL, you name it. “It’s so widespread that I’m getting reports of people being murdered and clubbed to death on the planes in disputes about who should have the antiquities.”

<snip>

However, just as opium production has increased exponentially in the four years since the Taliban was ousted and a western-backed government was installed in its place, so there has been an explosion of uncontrolled looting in archeological sites across the country.

The end of 25 years of war has opened up access to hitherto inaccessible sites, but the government’s failure to protect them and curb local warlords has halted international excavations and left the way clear for looters, often in the pay of local commanders.

<snip>

We will never know how much has been looted.

from the Iraq museum?