Grave Robbers
While grave robbers in America’s Noir films and mystery book collections dig up grandmother’s pearls, in Iraq another sort of treasure brings wealth to thieves. It may be argued that old pieces of rock, stone and clay tablets belong simply to the ancient past and are public domain. However, a people’s historical culture may be of as much value to a society as grandmother’s pearls to a family, either for sentiment and display or financial recompense. The article linked below has a recent story about lost and recovered goods from Iraqi earth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/world/middleeast/08iraq.html?_r=1#