My name is Neil Brodie. I am an archaeologist by training, and I have held positions at the British School at Athens, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, where I was Research Director of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, Stanford University’s Archaeology Center, and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow. I have been researching the illicit trade in cultural objects since 1997. I was co-author (with Jennifer Doole and Peter Watson) of the report Stealing History, commissioned by the Museums Association and ICOM-UK. I also co-edited Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade (with Morag Kersel, Christina Luke and Kathryn Walker Tubb, 2006), Illicit Antiquities: The Theft of Culture and the Extinction of Archaeology (with Kathryn Walker Tubb, 2002), and Trade in Illicit Antiquities: The Destruction of the World’s Archaeological Heritage (with Jennifer Doole and Colin Renfrew, 2001).
My work can be found here and here.
My current research interests are:
- Cultural, criminal and economic aspects of the illicit trade in cultural objects.
- The failure of international public policy to suppress the illicit trade in cultural objects.
- Novel regulatory solutions to the illicit trade in cultural objects.
- The legal and ethical contexts of scholarly engagement with illicitly traded cultural objects.
I have worked on archaeological projects in the United Kingdom, Greece and Jordan, and continue to work in Greece.