Page 172 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

Indiana Jones and the Illicit Trafficking and Repatriation… 163

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middlemen who in turn sell them onto buyers in the United States and
Europe, thus fuelling a multi-million dollar trade second only to drugs
[Elginism]. Terming trafficking in cultural property a ―seamless trade‖ and
pegging its value at US $6 billion annually, a high-profile United Nations
Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation meeting revealed that it was
next only to narcotics trade worth $7 billion. ―Trafficking in cultural property
has assumed the dimensions of a seamless trade as drug cartels peddle art
objects for ploughing the huge monetary gains in their narcotics trade and also
for arms dealings‖ [Galla].
However, these multi-million dollar figures do not reflect the reality of the
life of the tombaroli who see little profit despite their dangers and intense
manual labor. In an interview with one tombarolo, he relayed the nature of the
work, which has been described as follows: ―Breaking into a tomb usually
takes two nights. On the first, enough dirt is cleared away to allow ventilation
of the interior chamber…. On the second night, the tombaroli return to the site.
They use no flashlights or torches of any kind and prefer to work when the
moon is low…. ―[Ruiz].
According to this same tomobarolo, the middlemen or the ricettatore see
the real profit. In this interview, the tomobarolo would say little about the
middlemen though he describes them as ―well-educated‖ and ―part of the
establishment‖ [Ruiz, 5 May 2008]. ―The guy I work with most is a
professional… He makes a very good living from selling the material he buys
from me and from other tombaroli. I estimate that this guy sells the stuff for 10
times what he paid me. Let me put it this way: he drives a Mercedes, I drive a
Fiat Panda‖ [Ruiz, 5 May 2008].
Of these social actors, the Indiana Jones trilogy focuses most of its
attention on the middleman, rightly depicted as well-educated, professional
and wealthy. For instance, The Last Crusade takes the time to develop this
representation in such a polished character as Walter Donovan who
simultaneously works with both Indiana Jones as well as the Nazis to discover
the Holy Grail. However, the trilogy pays scant attention to representations of
the tombarolo at the heart of the trafficking operation and so their realities. At
most, these films only show local workers toiling under the direct control of

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―I know the land, know how to recognize the kind of grass that grows on the ground [above the
tombs], know almost what the ancient Etruscans were thinking when they were looking for
a place to bury their dead‖ [Lattanzi, pp. 48- 9]. The tombaroli‘s job was made easier by the
large number of unidentified and unguarded sites, but looters are equally at home raiding
protected areas. Clandestine digging at Morgantina [in Sicily] was almost uncontrolled;
[archaeologists] were having to guard their own trenches at night and actually suffered
some losses.‖ [Slayman, p. 43]