It’s the height of irony. A long-running museum exhibit at Jerusalem’s Ashdod Museum highlighting the black market antiquities trade, called Antiquities Theft in Israel, has been robbed. The exhibit had been running for four years and was incredibly popular in Israel, where the black market trade of ancient artifacts has been prevalent for years. Among the materials stolen from the exhibit were several gold earrings and a ring belonging to Alexander the Great.
I can understand, for example, how this kind of black market trade in rare goods would have been more common 50 years ago, but these days? I mean, ancient treasures don’t grow on trees, so they’re very valuable. Stealing something like that, if you can get it, seems like a likely target. However, what do you do with it?
If you were to find it or steal it and wanted to take it to market, just how would you get rid of it? I mean… how do you find a buyer for Alexander the Great’s ring? The way these treasure caches are guarded and coveted by their respective nations, there’s no way you can move something like that without a waiting buyer. So, who bought it?
Tags: Alexander the Great, Jerusalem, Israel, Antiquities Theft in Israel, Antiquities Theft in Israel exhibit robbed, museum robbed, unusual crimes, Ashdod Museum, irony
