May 13, 2009
"Archaeologist Charles Stanish of UCLA has recently published his findings that online auction sites such as eBay have actually help reduce the instances of antiquities looting. This is in part due to the fact that sellers have found that fakes are just as easy to sell, and are simpler to come by. The drastic change from looting sites to creating fake antiquities that sell online has saved many of the real artifacts from being put out into the market, but has not completely eliminated the problem.
This new market for forgeries, which Stanish estimates at 30% of the total products on eBay, has expanded because techniques used to authenticate the artifacts have not been able to keep up with the realistic fakes. Eventually, the evolution and advancement of technologies will make the creation of fakes that pass as real after authentication analyses more difficult. This could result in more looting, and the illegal selling and transporting of real antiquities once again."
Science Daily reports on E-Bay’s unexpected effect on the antiquities market.
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