The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this phenomenon. During the lockdown, the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR(link is external)) Project, a team of anthropologists and heritage experts specializing in digital networks for art trafficking, observed a resurgence in the sale of stolen objects on social networks – particularly from the Middle East and North Africa. The investigative study by this UNESCO partner led Facebook to ban the trade of historic cultural objects on its online platform.

https://courier.unesco.org/en/tags/editorial-tags