Organized crime involvement in antiquities looting in Italy

Abstract

Tombaroli (the Italian name for looters of archaeological heritage) have criminally preyed on Italy’s ancient tombs for centuries. Criminological research on archaeo- logical looting in Italy, however, is scarce. This research focused on the nature of the relationship between tombaroli and organized crime groups in Italy: a misrepre- sented relationship, as some media outlets depict looters as involved with organized crime. This research project drew on a multidisciplinary body of literature on Italian archaeological looting and interviews with looters, law enforcement officials, ar- cheologists, prosecutors, and journalists, among others. It demonstrated that Italian archaeological looting is not a problem of organized crime. The study concluded that, presently, the relationship between looters and traditional Italian criminal or- ganizations is anecdotal at best, nor currently looters could be considered organized criminals but rather criminals that need a certain level of organization to operate.