Archeology Series Presentation Tess Davis, “Blood Antiquities: Tomb Raiders, Art Smugglers, and the Black Market in Cultural Treasures”

We all know the thrill of tomb raiding adventure novels and Hollywood films—Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Thomas Crown—hunting for hidden treasures. But the real stories of looted and trafficked cultural property are far darker. In reality, it’s no longer daring explorers who dig up the past, but opportunistic criminals, war profiteers, mafia networks, armed insurgents, and even terrorist organizations.

The Antiquities Coalition, founded in 2014 by Deborah Lehr, was created to combat this cultural racketeering. As a “think and do tank,” the Coalition unites business leaders, government officials, lawyers, security experts, and other professionals in working towards a future when the past is preserved for the next generation, not looted, smuggled, and sold to the highest bidder.

In this exclusive talk, Executive Director and attorney Tess Davis takes you behind the scenes to reveal the high-stakes, illicit world where stolen art and cultural treasures fuel crime, conflict, and corruption—and the ways we can fight back.

About the speaker: Tess Davis, a lawyer and archaeologist by training, is Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition. She oversees the organization’s work to fight cultural racketeering and also manages the day-to-day operations of the institute’s staff in Washington, DC, as well as programs overseas. Davis has been a legal consultant for the Cambodian and US governments and works with both the art world and law enforcement to keep looted antiquities off the market. She writes and speaks widely on these issues. In 2015, the Royal Government of Cambodia knighted Davis for her work to recover the country’s plundered treasures, awarding her the rank of Commander in the Royal Order of the Sahametrei.