ANTIQUTIES LOOTERS FOILED (THIS TIME):

Stolen rare artifact recovered in mail
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

A rare archaeological artifact dating back nearly two thousand years which was stolen from an archaeological site in Israel has been intercepted in the mail en route to the US, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.

The 5-7 cm lead weight,[mishkolet oferet] dating back to the second century Bar Kochba Revolt, was hidden inside a book sent by airmail.

The unusual package was sent by a former Israeli antiquities dealer to a prominent American antiquities dealer in New York, the head of the Antiquities Authority's anti-theft division Amir Ganor said.

[...]

This success is good news, but the overall picture continues to worsen:

About 300 archeology thefts are detected each year in Israel, with the illicit antiquities trade on the black market in the country estimated to be running in the millions of dollars a year.

Despite the overall drop in violence in Israel, the number of antiquities theft has risen more than 50 percent in the last year alone.

In 2004 there were 314 reported cases of antiquities theft, compared to less than 200 in 2003. The phenomenon of antiquities theft has taken on gold rush dimensions, with an antiquities site now plundered every day on average.