The Plundered Past

It was in the course of research for his earlier work The Pleasure of Archaeology that Karl Meyer became aware of the increasingly serious dilemma confronting museums and collectors in buying ancient art, most of which is smuggled. The Plundered Past is the superbly documented result of three years of pioneer investigation into the illicit traffic in stolen art and pillaged antiquities and reveals many unsuspected 'under the counter' deals in the museum world.