They not only murder, kidnap and rape. They have a sideline business: looting and trading antiquities. Despite the videos circulating of militants tearing down statues, vandalizing libraries and burning books, behind the display of indiscriminate destruction enormous profits are being made from smuggled artifacts. There are collectors across the world so eager to own pieces from Mesopotamia that they will blithely ignore their bloodstained provenance. Some items are openly auctioned; others quietly find their way into the hands of private buyers—in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin and London.
