Artifact theft from archeological sites all throughout the ME is rampant. Private collectors pay big money providing the incentive for unscrupulous individuals to plunder ancient sites, often destroying any archeological analysis that could have been gained from such finds. These thieves are often very destructive. Egypt gets hit hard as well as Israel, Iraq, and Syria. Modern day tomb raiders in Egypt cut through security gates or tunnel in. Some have even resorted to using explosives to gain entry. I have seen whole sections of painted walls with hieroglyphs cut out to remove a section leaving a great deal of destruction to surrounding artifacts. Those types of jobs I have no doubt were inside jobs simply due to the scale and the size of the panel being removed. The Egyptian Antiquities authority just doesn't have the resources to protect all the sites, so they become prime targets for the raiders.

There was a big arrest last year in China that involved a museum curator and his family. The curator was tasked with keeping several Chinese historical treasures. Many of which were from previous imperial dynasties. These were items that had survived Mao's Cultural Revolution often due to collectors that hid and protected this history from the Communist Chinese thugs that burned, smashed, and destroyed many irreplaceable historical objects. The curator was an esteemed expert. His integrity was never questioned nor did he draw any suspicion. This particular museum heist took place over several decades. The original was either replaced with a very good fake, or the item simply disappeared from the catalog. The curator's son had a business that dealt with antiquities and was able to wash the possession history of an item creating a new one. The items eventually made their way to the auction market. That is how the decades of theft was eventually exposed. A women whose father had donated a large collection of imperial period paintings, calligraphies, and other items, recognized one of the pieces being auctioned and alerted authorities. An investigation then uncovered the massive theft that had taken place slowly over the years. Thousands of items had been stolen and sold for millions. Some may never be recovered.

There is also a lot of fraud that takes place in the antiquities market. Museums are often the targets of such fakes which can be so good that even the experts have a hard time distinguishing what is actually an ancient artifact and what is a fake. Some of these fakes have made their way to some very prestigious museums at great cost and have been on display until the fraud is exposed. Some of these antiquities theft and fake operations are international in scope. It can be very profitable.