Monday, January 05, 2026 - 
antiquities,ARCA,british museum,Edgar Tijhuis,Egypt,Marcel Maree,Sudan
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antiquities,ARCA,british museum,Edgar Tijhuis,Egypt,Marcel Maree,Sudan
No comments
Interview with Marcel Marée - Egyptologist and curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum
This series aims to offer future participants a personal glimpse into the people who teach with ARCA, the community around it, and what to expect in the coming year.
I am an Egyptologist and curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. Through my curatorial work and easy access to sale catalogues, I began to notice recurring problems on the art market: artefacts with dubious histories, questionable practices by sellers, and a striking lack of transparency. As I researched further, it became clear that a significant number of antiquities in circulation can be traced back to recent looting events and are being laundered through false or misleading provenances.
In response, I founded the Circulating Artefacts (CircArt) project in 2018, which I have led ever since. The project applies rigorous provenance research to the trade in cultural heritage, with the dual aim of facilitating the recovery of illegally sourced artefacts and preserving the historical information that so often is lost through plunder and trafficking. The project is currently transitioning into an independent organisation under a new name, to be formally announced next year.
I regularly provide research, expertise, and training to heritage professionals and relevant authorities across Europe, North America, and MENA countries. I work closely with the Border Security and Management Unit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and am a founding member of its Heritage Crime Task Force, which responds to requests for investigative assistance from member and partner countries.
I take a strong interest in the role subject specialists can play in the fight against heritage crime. Early on, I became aware of ARCA’s pioneering efforts to build bridges among all parties in this endeavour – from prosecutors and law enforcement officers to archaeologists and representatives of the trade. I strongly support ARCA’s work, and our collaborations continue to develop and bear fruit.
You have been part of ARCA’s community for some time. Have you attended the annual Amelia Art Crime Conference or previous programmes? And do you have one memorable moment or insight you would like to share with future participants?
I have been actively involved with ARCA’s programmes since 2018, contributing courses and supervising several Capstone theses. One of the most striking aspects of the programme is the students’ exceptional motivation and intellectual engagement, which consistently elevates the quality and depth of the discussions. Their commitment plays a crucial role in shaping a vibrant and supportive ARCA community that extends well beyond the classroom.
What particularly distinguishes the programme is the diversity of participants’ professional and academic backgrounds. This creates a uniquely productive forum for constructive dialogue and meaningful skill-sharing, bringing together perspectives from heritage professionals, law enforcement, researchers, legal experts, and others working in relevant areas. This interdisciplinary exchange provides a solid foundation for developing the professional networks, shared knowledge, and practical infrastructure needed to effectively address the illicit trade in cultural property.
I have attended several of the annual Amelia Art Crime Conferences. They are intellectually stimulating and very motivational, offering a unique opportunity to engage with leading practitioners in the field, exchange ideas across sectors, and strengthen professional connections that often translate into lasting collaborations. People like us are thinly spread, so we rely on networking to maximise the impact of our work.
From your perspective, what makes ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Program truly unique and valuable?
ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Program is truly unique because it creates a sustained and structured framework for dialogue among professionals who rarely have the opportunity to learn with one another in such a focused area of interest. It brings together participants with widely divergent backgrounds and skill sets – archaeologists, law enforcement officers, legal scholars, forensic analysts, museum professionals, and art market stakeholders. This encourages them to engage not only across disciplines, but across professional cultures.
This kind of interdisciplinary exchange is not merely beneficial; it is essential. The illicit trade in cultural property operates across jurisdictions, sectors, and legal systems, and no single profession can address it effectively in isolation. ARCA’s programme fosters the shared vocabulary, mutual understanding, expertise, and trust required for meaningful collaboration, helping participants to better understand each other’s constraints, priorities, and modes of operation.
Equally important is the programme’s strong emphasis on practical skills and real-world case studies, which bridges the gap between theory and practice. By equipping participants with both conceptual tools and applied methodologies, ARCA contributes directly to improving the effectiveness of investigations, prosecutions, and preventative measures. In this sense, the programme does not simply educate individuals; it helps build the collaborative infrastructure that is indispensable for countering the illegal trade in art and antiquities. Enhanced communication and collaboration between all relevant parties is essential to achieve a higher success rate in counteracting the trade in stolen art and artefacts.
How does the location in Italy — surrounded by centuries of cultural heritage — enhance the learning experience for participants?
I have no doubt that the setting deepens the participants’ sense of inspiration and cultural awareness. That said, cultural heritage is everywhere, and the issues ARCA addresses are by no means confined to Italy.
What the location does offer is a tangible reminder of the long temporal depth and fragility of cultural heritage, and of the cumulative and irreversible impact that poor management and loss can have over time. Being immersed in a place where archaeology, architecture, archives, and living communities intersect will sharpen the participants’ awareness of what is at stake whenever cultural objects, or parts thereof, are removed from their contexts and enter illicit or poorly regulated markets.
In this sense, the Italian setting functions less as a backdrop and more as a quiet point of reference, reinforcing the programme’s core themes without overshadowing its global scope or analytical focus.
Are there particular site visits or practical elements during your course that you find especially valuable?
From my perspective as a speaker, what I find most valuable is the amount of time the programme allocates not only for the presentation of teaching materials in appropriate depth, but also for sustained discussion. This allows complex issues to be unpacked carefully, including the methodological ramifications of provenance research, the practical limits of what subject specialists can and cannot establish from the available evidence, and the ways in which their findings can be brought to bear on police action.
The extended format encourages detailed question-and-answer exchanges, in which finer points can be explored interactively rather than addressed superficially. These discussions often prompt critical reflection, challenge assumptions, and invite participants to contribute perspectives drawn from their own professional experience. For me, this combination of in-depth teaching and engaged dialogue is where much of the programme’s practical value lies.
As we look toward the 2026 program, which developments or emerging issues in the field of art crime do you consider particularly important, and how will these be reflected in your course?
One of the most alarming developments in the field is the growing use of digital technologies to fabricate or manipulate provenance documentation. These tools have significantly lowered the barrier to producing seemingly convincing ownership histories, making traditional forms of due diligence increasingly vulnerable to deception.
This development makes greater involvement of subject specialists – archaeologists, art historians – more pressing than ever. I see an increasing urgency to move beyond heavy reliance on circumstantial and document-based evidence and to strengthen analytical approaches based on evidence contained in the objects themselves. Stylistic and technical features, epigraphic and philological clues, iconography, material characteristics, the presence of dirt, wear, or alterations – all of these, and more, can provide trained specialists with robust indicators of recent illicit excavation at identifiable looting hotspots. Besides, objects should never be studied in isolation. It is vitally important to assess whether they form part of a broader pattern of material observable on the market.
In my course, I stress the need for methodological rigour in provenance research. Participants learn how experts can critically assess documentation, recognise the limits of paper trails, and understand how object-based analysis can provide concrete, defensible findings to help support investigations and enable law-enforcement action. This equips participants to identify old and new forms of deception in the antiquities trade. I will also argue that we need to expand and coordinate capacity to provide police with actionable specialist knowledge, often on short notice as objects are being detained for potential seizure. A new opportunity has arisen to build and harness this capacity sustainably, and this will be addressed in the course.
I will also remind participants that provenance research serves not only to support law enforcement in the recovery of objects, but also to safeguard associated historical data at risk of permanent loss. When specialists share knowledge without adequate reciprocity from the relevant authorities, valuable information is often lost unnecessarily – for example, data concerning other artefacts linked to the same suspect and thus potentially originating from the same archaeological locale. Failure to share information in both directions erases history, discourages specialist engagement, and undermines investigative opportunities. I have encountered multiple examples of this neglect.
The insistence of subject specialists on contextual knowledge may seem excessive, but law enforcement officers must understand that this information substantially enhances the evidentiary, historical, and cultural value of recovered artefacts – and that its loss is an avoidable calamity. Too often, police take for granted the support they receive from specialists, without acknowledging their own responsibility to help preserve clues about the contexts from which objects have been removed. This includes information about supply routes and other artefacts handled by the same actors. It is entirely understandable that professionals from different backgrounds may be blind to each other’s priorities, but this is precisely why sustained and thoughtful communication between these parties is so essential.
Last but not least, my course will demonstrate that enhanced scrutiny of the trade by subject specialists can help foster good practice in the market. When carefully managed, a public service for robust provenance research can establish a new benchmark for ethical trade, promoting higher standards of due diligence among sellers and buyers, and discouraging the circulation of illegally sourced objects. Proactive monitoring by specialists is crucial for ensuring accountability, benefiting all honest actors. Sellers and buyers can reduce their exposure to financial, reputational, and legal risks if they are willing to seek expert feedback in a transparent and auditable manner. To achieve this, we must improve the conditions that make such engagement possible.
What key skills, perspectives, or tools do you hope participants will gain from your course? In what ways can they apply these insights in their professional or academic paths?
The key aim is for subject specialists to recognise the vital role they must play in protecting cultural heritage from criminal exploitation. My course draws attention to a wide range of underused and overlooked methods and tools at their disposal. Academia remains a largely untapped resource in criminal investigations, yet specialists can make a crucial difference by providing law enforcement with reliable intelligence, based on thorough provenance research that only they are equipped to conduct.
The time when experts could conveniently distance themselves from the art market and its practices is over. For those who claim to be heritage professionals, turning a blind eye to heritage destruction is no longer an option. To suggest that this responsibility falls outside their daily duties or institutional remit is hardly justifiable. This sense of disconnect – or outright indifference – remains depressingly common, even in museums, the very institutions entrusted with safeguarding heritage. Such distancing not only fails to protect the past but also enables ongoing losses.
Through my course, participants gain not only the technical skills and analytical tools to assess an object’s archaeological origin and ownership history, but also the perspective and professional confidence to apply these tools responsibly. They learn how to turn their research into usable intelligence for law enforcement, inform prosecutions, and strengthen heritage protection, ensuring that their work has tangible impact both academically and in the real world.
If someone is considering applying to ARCA’s 2026 program, what advice would you give them? And why do you think now is a meaningful moment to engage with this field?
My advice to anyone considering participation in ARCA’s 2026 program is to be prepared to engage fully, not just with the material but with the ethical and practical dilemmas and challenges of protecting cultural heritage. Be ready to learn from experts across disciplines, to question assumptions, and to develop the skills and perspectives that will allow you to make a tangible difference in this field.
Now is a particularly critical moment to engage with the scourge of heritage crime. Around the world, cultural heritage is being destroyed and sold off on an unprecedented scale. There is a pressing need for more people to organise and tackle this problem effectively. The challenges are evolving, as new technologies make illicit practices increasingly sophisticated. Yet the tools, methodologies, and collaborative frameworks available to confront heritage crime are now also more robust than ever. There has never been a more suitable time for well-intentioned specialists to apply their expertise responsibly and make a real-world impact. And ARCA’s program provides the ideal foundation for those seeking to build a career in this field.
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* Dr Edgar Tijhuis is Academic Director at ARCA and is responsible for coordinating ARCA’s postgraduate certificate programmes. Since 2009, he has also taught criminology modules within ARCA's PG Certification programming. To apply for the 2026 programmes, request a prospectus via the email below or contact Edgar Tijhuis for other questions.
📌 ARCA Postgraduate Certificate Programmes
(Italy | Summer 2026)
• Post
Lauream I (22 May – 23 June 2026): PG Cert in Art & Antiquities Crime
• Post
Lauream II (26 June – 26 July 2026): PG Cert in Provenance, Acquisition &
Interpretation of Cultural Property
➡️ Take one track—or combine both in a
single summer.
