Currently reading
Roman Blood
Progress:
171/401 pages
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child
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208/557 pages
Avant-gardes du XXe siècle: arts & littérature, 1905-1930
Caesar's Commentaries: On the Gallic War and On the Civil War
Les bûchers de Bocanegra
The Songs of the Kings
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories: Volumes I and II
The Hobbit
The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities-- From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums
Well written and documented inquest into the world of antiquities. The looting, the thefts, the complaisance of the professionals (curators, museum board members, scholars), the greed all combine to make it extremely easy for tomb raiders (that includes collectors, museums, tombaroli, smugglers) to despoil entire region. It shows how since the 1960 a system, international system, was put in place to answer the demand for antiquities from collectors and that there was a huge profit to be made out of it. For smugglers, for collectors who launder the loot then turns around and 'donate' to museums with a big tax break. Antiquities became commodities like oil and corn by the 1980.The demonstration by the Italians Art squad of the system is solid and very interesting to read. The last third lags a little from the repeats of the cases, since it covers the legal trials of the people arrested still it's a well written and solid account of investigating journalism.
