"INIGO GILMORE:" "In theory," "I've got five hours of record time." "I'm not sure about the battery life, but hopefully there's enough to capture the evidence that the authorities need to put a smuggler behind bars." "My name is inigo gilmore." "I'm an investigative journalist and I've spent years covering wars in the middle east." "But this Syrian conflict is somehow different." "The slaughter seems to be never ending and it's even taken some of my friends." "Five years in, there's limited media coverage and now there are reports that looted antiquities from that region are ending up for sale here in London." "It's a personal affront, i live here." "In may 2015, islamic state fighters seized the" "Syrian city of palmyra." "The jihadis were in power for less than a year, but they transformed the ancient landscape into a slaughterhouse, murdering prisoners on the stage of the" "Roman amphitheater, demolishing statues, tombs, and one of palmyra's most precious structures, the bel temple." "But this destruction is just one part of a much darker story." "The islamic state has been systematically looting Syria and Iraq for profit." "[MAN SPEAKING IN ARABIC]." "AMR AL-AZM:" "It's such a big business now that it's almost superseded the oil trade." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I'm going to get as close as i can to the source of the black market to learn how these antiquities are crossing front lines and international borders." "Who's smuggling them?" "Who's buying them?" "And, in the end, providing cash to those maniacs in Isis." "♪ [NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC THEME MUSIC PLAYS] ♪" "♫" "♫" "I'm in gaziantep, it's a town in Southern Turkey, close to the Syrian border." "I'm just 50 miles from Isis controlled territory." "I'm here to investigate the illegal trade in looted antiquities." "Since the conflict began, this city has become more and more paranoid." "The war is spilling over into Turkey." "It's known that islamic state have agents operating here." "They've got eyes and ears everywhere and they're watching people." "I'm now on my way to meet the contact who has intimate knowledge about the looting of antiquities and the role of islamic state in this clandestine business." "Thank you." "I have the carefully guarded address for a safe house where a group of undercover Syrian activists meet." "I'm told they have information about looting in Syria and are prepared to share their secrets with a journalist." "Hi, are you amr?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Hi, inigo gilmore nice to meet you." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Pleased to meet you!" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Amr al-azm is an archaeologist and an active member of the Syrian opposition." "Before the war he taught at Damascus university." "Today, from a non-descript office downtown, he coordinates the work of these modern-day" ""monuments men."" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Every Syrian in Syria lives either on top of an archaeological site, right next to an archaeological site, or within a stone's throw of an archaeological site." "It's everywhere and it's being destroyed systematically." "INIGO GILMORE:" "For me personally, having been to some of these places in Syria, from palmyra and other sites." "I mean, it just drives me mad." "In my mind, I'm thinking how can we stop this from happening?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "You must imagine also how frustrated we are as Syrians." "I've seen the sun rise, at the temple of bell." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Incredible isn't it?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yes, exactly." "You know I've seen that burst of light as you stand in that temple and that sun just rises up and hits the window exactly at the right angle." "I've seen that, and my daughters will never see that." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Because it's gone." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Because it's gone." "Oh hey, the boys are here!" "I always feel really, really excited to see them." "Because i never know if I'm going to see them again the next time." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Of the group of five that i meet three have to remain anonymous because they're working in islamic state controlled areas." "The other men are operating under rebel control." "They don't face the same risk." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Hey inigo, sahafi al-alm." "This is inigo, he's a journalist working on a story with us." "Adnan:" "Nice to meet you." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Great to meet you too." "Nice to meet you." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Good thing you're on time, he was wearing me out with his questions." "Most of them studied with me when i used to teach at" "Damascus, so this is like old friends meeting up again." "INIGO GILMORE:" "You must have known them for many years." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Oh yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Meetings of the monuments men are shrouded in the utmost secrecy." "They agreed to share details of their undercover operations because they believe that outrage can be a tool and trust me to get their story out." "This video was secretly filmed on a hidden camera." "No one has ever captured this." "Here, Isis agents hack into the earth, to them it's a treasure hunt." "But gathering such rare images is risky work." "Adnan:" "One time, i was taken by the secret police." "They wantd me to tell them about the treasures of palmyra." "AMR AL-AZM:" "They were held for an entire day and interrogated, basically, trying to get them to tell where the "so called" supposed treasures were." "[SPEAKING IN ARABIC]." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Last year Isis put the same question to renowned archaeologist khaled al-asaad, a friend of amr's." "When he refused to answer, they beheaded him." "Adnan:" "Later they had a problem with the length of my robe." "They said, "why is it so long?" "You have to shorten it."" "And then they put me in prison." "AMR AL-AZM:" "He was also told that he had to take his wedding ring off, that this was not." "INIGO GILMORE:" "This ring?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yeah." "Adnan:" "Sacrilegious." "INIGO GILMORE:" "They told you you're wedding ring was haram?" "Adnan:" "Yes, haram." "AMR AL-AZM:" "He had to take it off." "Adnan:" "At the beginning of the war, my wife asked me to fight against bashar al-Assad." "She said why don't you defend the women and children." "I have three children." "I told her i did not want to kill innocent people who have been forced to fight for Assad." "So i decided to defend what i know how to defend." "People are risking their lives for Syria." "We are risking our lives for Syria's past." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So amr hands out these phones to the monuments men." "They try and record not only the antiquity itself, they need to give the geographical context because once that piece has been removed it's very hard to trace where it actually came from." "What if they caught you and searched your phone?" "[ADNAN SPEAKING IN ARABIC]." "AMR AL-AZM:" "When you raise your hands, they quickly search your body." "But they don't hold your wrists or your ankles to see if there's anything hidden in there." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So you hide it under the clothing?" "Adnan:" "A razor cut to the sleeve and you can slide a memory card inside." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So if they found you with this material, they would kill you?" "[AMR AL-AZM TRANSLATES IN ARABIC]." "[Adnan responds in arabic]." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yes, very possible." "INIGO GILMORE:" "They're literally prepared to put their lives on the line." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Be careful, okay?" "It's always hard when they go, it's really tough." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Must be on your mind all the time." "They're inside." "AMR AL-AZM:" "I know they wanna do it anyway, but i also feel a sense of responsibility." "I get irritable sometimes, he-he," "I've been known to be less than friendly in those times." "I uh, anyway." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I leave my meeting with the monuments men thinking about their return to Syria." "These former students of amr's would be teaching or doing fieldwork if it wasn't for the civil war." "470,000 Syrians are dead and over 11 million displaced." "Syria is in ruins." "But these Syrians haven't given up hope." "[PHONE RINGS]." "If this civil war is being funded in any way by blood antiquities." "I mean to prove it." "Could relics from palmyra, for example, be for sale here in Turkey?" "CONTACT:" "Yes?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Hi, there it's inigo gilmore." "I was put in touch with you." "I place a call to a confidential source." "What is the situation, how does, how does it work?" "Contact:" "Well, just a couple of weeks before they assassinated a couple of journalists already, so..." "In order to just show off." "What can i say?" "I'll give you the address, ok?" "INIGO GILMORE: ok." "This guy I'm meeting is being watched." "He said he was tortured by i.S. Inside Syria." "So the very fact that i am going to meet him puts me on the islamic state's radar." "KHALEED: right now, I'm wanted by Isis because" "I'm a media activist working for the opposition." "They took palmyra, they kicked out the residents, they destroyed the monuments." "They killed all the archaeologists." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Who's the boy going up, onto the mosque onto the top of the mosque?" "KHALEED:" "The boy climbing up is the Isis leader's son." "INIGO GILMORE:" "This is your video?" "KHALEED:" "Yes, this is my video." "INIGO GILMORE:" "What is the scale of destruction now in palmyra?" "KHALEED:" "This is the bel temple that Isis destroyed after they entered palmyra." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So this is the bell temple?" "KHALEED:" "The former bel temple." "INIGO GILMORE:" "And that's all that's left of it, the arch?" "KHALEED:" "This is what it looks like now..." "Here's an earlier picture of it." "That's how the temple was." "INIGO GILMORE:" "That's what it looked like before." "KHALEED:" "Isis's media strategy continues." "They say the monuments are forbidden and they will destroy them." "Of course that's just in the media." "In reality, they're selling the antiquities, not destroying them." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So what kind of stuff is being looted and taken out?" "KHALEED:" "All of these were smuggled out of palmyra and can be found here in Turkey." "INIGO GILMORE:" "That's beautiful." "KHALEED:" "This piece could sell for between 5,000 and 10,000 U.S. dollars." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Five to ten thousand." "KHALEED:" "Mm-hm." "INIGO GILMORE:" "If i was to come into contact these guys, because i want to investigate what's happened to them, is there a danger that they might just sell me like an antiquity?" "KHALEED:" "If they know you're a foreigner, you'd be more valuable than the antiquities." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Of course he said to me I'd be a real jackass to go and do this, to go in and meet these dealers." "But i felt i had no choice." "If I'm going to find out how this illegal trade works, the only way is to go undercover and record what happens, secretly." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So, yeah, got the little pinhole camera right here, and." "It's frozen!" "This is bad, it's frozen, it's frozen." "If that starts bleeping, then it's a (Bleep) Mess." "I get, i have to pretend it's my cell phone or something." "To be honest, I'm already a bit apprehensive, a little bit nervous, because we're going to meet the middle men who are supposed to take us to meet this dealer who has this head from the statue or something." "And we don't really know who they are." "We're relying on these middle men to take us there, and they don't even know that we're gonna be filming." "So, there's obviously a degree of jeopardy involved, for me at least." "Nothing like a bit of bling to pass yourself off as uh, apparently as an antiquities buyer." "Hopefully this will make me look the part." "And, hopefully i won't get kidnapped and have my head chopped off." "[LAUGHS]." "I asked Amr what kind of questions someone posing as a buyer would ask these dealers?" "He agreed to come along in the car." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Ask him, where it came from, and at some point early on you should ask him how much." "Alright?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Alright." "So now we're picking up the middle men." "These guys will vouch that I'm a serious buyer and take me to the dealers." "The dealers trust them." "MIDDLE MEN:" "Okay, but just relax, relax." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Could they be linked to some islamic state guys?" "Am i gonna be kidnapped?" "Can we film?" "CAMERAMAN:" "Can we film?" "MIDDLE MEN:" "Yeah, you can film." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Of course, no faces." "Let's drive out of here because these guys are really looking at us." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" "Can they see through the windows or not?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yeah they can see in." "Let's just get out of here." "DEALER:" "We're in burlughaya, the kcb garage." "Well known in the area." "MIDDLE MAN:" "I need the name of the neighborhood, at least." "Go outside and find a turkish person." "Have him give me directions." "AMR AL-AZM:" "The dealers I've met are complete idiots, not idiots in the sense of stupid, but they're just, really, they're not pros." "MIDDLE MAN:" "No problem." "The time isn't the problem, we just need to know where we're going." "AMR AL-AZM:" "The guy doesn't even know where he lives." "INIGO GILMORE:" "He doesn't know where lives?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "He's gonna call back, in a minute." "INIGO GILMORE:" "It's getting dark, which is uh, not necessarily a great thing." "MIDDLE MAN 2:" "Demokrasi boulevard." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Demokrasi boulevard." "MIDDLE MAN 2:" "Is it far?" "MIDDLE MAN:" "No, it's not far at all, 15 minutes away." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So that's it." "We're going to meet this guy, in a park." "After dark, which is never good in my opinion." "Anyway to silence this (Bleep) Thing?" "I don't feel good about this moment, seriously." "Erin:" "Just drive, drive, drive." "I saw them a second ago." "What happened?" "I don't know where they disappeared?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "After some difficulty we find this park, these guys turn up." "And they look kind of rough dudes, one of them's got a limp, he got hit by shrapnel in some battle in Syria." "I'm thinking, god, who is this guy, you know?" "Who is he fighting for?" "[INDISTINCT SHOUTS]." "And suddenly they just take us quickly into this doorway and up some stairs." "I'm nervous, for sure." "There's no bones about it." "They seem to believe that I'm an actual buyer." "At least initially." "DEALER:" "Would you like some tea, coffee?" "MIDDLE MAN:" "No, we don't want to bother you." "DEALER:" "No, it's no trouble!" "INIGO GILMORE:" "It's all kind of quite pleasant to begin with, protocol, cups of tea." "DEALER:" "This job is all hardship, you know." "MIDDLE MAN:" "It's all fate, fate." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So I'm told by the middle men that this dealer has a range of antiquities on him at the moment." "The prize thing is supposedly an ancient hittite head carved in relief." "DEALER:" "We've had people come to see it, they've examined it, but we could not agree on a price." "INIGO GILMORE:" "One of the middle men says," ""give me an offer."" "$3,000." "MIDDLE MAN: 3,000?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "I'm trying to kind of get it in front of the camera, so the camera can pick up the image." "My hands have sweat, oozing out them." "I'm thinking, this would be a terrible moment for the camera to screw up again." "Is it alright if i use the bathroom?" "I tell them i have some bowel issues and i need to use the bathroom." "They lead me out to the toilet and i notice that the light's not working." "And then one of the middle men realizes and comes out and hands me this phone, which has a little torch on it, and i get the camera out and I'm trying to check the button." "I have this terrible phobia that this thing's gonna start beeping." "So i shove it back in." "So i get back inside and the younger of the two men starts to get, i feel, a bit suspicious." "DEALER:" "Pray to him and he'll tell you:" "We are not the owners, we are just selling." "INIGO GILMORE:" "A bunch of coins come out." "He keeps sort of checking me out especially as i have to keep leaning forward to capture them with the buttonhole, you know, i must've looked a bit odd sometimes." "At one stage one of the middle men produces his phone and starts taking pictures." "And then he starts shooting some video!" "My arabic is not great but i can understand he was saying," ""what the (Bleep) Are you doin', why are you taking images of us?"" "You know and this is like an illegal thing that's going on!" "DEALER:" "Why is he staying silent, listening to us talk?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "He says to them eventually," ""why's this guy not asking questions?"" "MIDDLE MAN:" "He doesn't know, poor guy, how we work." "Say something to me, say anything." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Think he can get it to Europe?" "Of course i have no bloody clue how to negotiate properly with these guys." "MIDDLE MAN 2:" "The British man wants it taken out of Turkey." "DEALER:" "Bulgaria, maybe?" "MIDDLE MAN 2:" "Now you said fifty thousand, plus another twenty-five hundred." "INIGO GILMORE:" "As the prices keep going up." "DEALER: 3,000 for the head." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I'm getting more worried." "DEALER:" "So, for the head, the coins and a mosaic he can see later..." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I need to get the hell out of here, before they realize i have no intention of buying anything." "60?" "No way." "I said uh, can we wrap this up?" "I need to, um, talk to my partners." "We say our goodbyes, we thank them," ""salam" and "can't wait to do business with you."" "It's a good idea to get the hell out with the recordings that i had before they found out who i really was." "CREW:" "Yeah I'm seeing you, I'm seeing you." "INIGO GILMORE:" "We did it!" "Let's get a bloody move first." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Well, it's not exactly a nice area, he was just saying that this police station got attacked several times." "I didn't want to tell you that." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I could've bought that head, it would've been easy." "They mentioned they could even ship it through Bulgaria." "They were so casual about it, it was like a route that they used before." "Then i remembered." "[PHONE/SKYPE RINGING]." "Pick the (Bleep) Phone up." "I'm trying to reach the police in a small town called shumen." "Last march there was a raid there and the police uncovered a trove of antiquities." "But of course, they're giving me the bloody run-around." "Because of its geographical location," "Bulgaria has long been a gateway to rich," "European markets." "Today, the flow of illicit goods is controlled by criminal networks." "You don't want to mess with them." "My investigation is about to get a whole lot more dangerous." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So I'm in shumen, Bulgaria." "Just a couple of hours north of the turkish border." "Bulgaria is known as a transit point for criminal gangs smuggling anything from guns, drugs, people, you name it." "Last march, the shumen police, acting on a tip, stumbled upon a surreal trove of antiquities hidden under rugs in a garage." "WYMEH:" "We have narrowed down the list of possible suspects." "Now we've discovered one of them is a temporary resident of Bulgaria." "INIGO GILMORE:" "A turkish national was arrested." "The police claimed he's a hobbyist with no priors, who bought the antiquities on holiday at a market in izmir." "The relics are now locked away in a local museum and police say they're still investigating." "I need to know if these pieces could be from Syria, smuggled through Turkey, on their way for sale in the west." "So I've connected with a Bulgarian journalist out of" "Sofia who's going to translate for me." "I really needed her to help me navigate this weird underworld." "What does the headline here read?" "NADYA:" "Criminalists from shumen found and caught illegal activities connected to cultural, historical valuables." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Wow that's quite a mouthful, yeah." "[NADYA LAUGHS]." "With nadya's help, the museum agreed to let me inspect the seized antiquities." "Where are you keeping the antiquities?" "Down here?" "I was introduced to the curator of the museum and this kind of Joey-ramone-punk guy." "He looked a bit out of place but they told me he was an expert and who am i to contest that?" "So we're about to see the pieces that are being kept here down in the basement of the museum." "STANIMIR:" "These are Roman tombstones from the first century." "INIGO GILMORE:" "You have a father a mother and the children." "How can you authenticate that this is from the Roman period?" "STANIMIR:" "We know its age because the cut of marble has acquired a patina of lime." "INIGO GILMORE:" "The patina on it." "And i guess as well the writing?" "STANIMIR:" "The inscription mentions the names of the whole family." "INIGO GILMORE:" "That's in Greek letters." "NADYA:" "Yes, Greek letters." "INIGO GILMORE:" "It's based on a sumerian iconography but done later." "STANIMIR:" "Yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "And so would this have come from what is now modern-day Iraq?" "STANIMIR:" "Could be, could be." "INIGO GILMORE:" "What is this piece?" "STANIMIR:" "A small fragment from a sarcophagus." "INIGO GILMORE:" "From a sarcophagus?" "STANIMIR:" "Yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "There's another gravestone." "STANIMIR:" "Here is another gravestone with inscription." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Some have suggested that these are forgeries." "But you are absolutely certain that these are genuine?" "STANIMIR:" "The experts say yes." "ZHENYA:" "These are the other part of the pieces." "The region is the same, the middle east." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Is there big money for such antiquities for sale?" "ZHENYA:" "A lot, a lot of money, yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "What are we talking about here?" "ZHENYA:" "Maybe." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Tens of thousands?" "ZHENYA:" "Yes, maybe." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Hundreds of thousands." "ZHENYA:" "Yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "With these antiquities and others, is it possible that these have been looted from Syria and" "Iraq then transferred through Turkey and through Bulgaria on their way to Europe." "ZHENYA:" "Yes, it is possible." "Maybe it is one of the ways to bring them to the market in Europe." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I'm in shock almost." "What we've seen." "These incredible antiquities there in the basement." "Roman-era antiquities!" "NADYA:" "What's your gut feeling about this?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "I need to speak with the shumen police." "You guys shouldn't follow from here because it's gonna blow our access, if they see cameras." "They're very nervous." "The police refused to speak on camera." "I asked them whether the turkish suspect's garage was a glimpse into a much larger pipeline." "They angrily denied it, and if i wanted more answers to go find the turk." "According to the police he reports every day to a parole officer here in shumen." "So the turk." "NADYA:" "I found this article." "It's from a Bulgarian author who worked on this." "Look at this." "INIGO GILMORE:" "A police raid?" "NADYA:" "It says, "garage louvre" in shumen." "INIGO GILMORE:" "They call it the garage louvre." "That's quite a headline." "NADYA:" "The garage is owned by a Bulgarian but he lended it to his friend, who is turkish." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So the turk, is that him?" "NADYA:" "I think so, yeah." "INIGO GILMORE:" "He looks like a kind of mafia-hood." "What's he doing?" "Doing some weird sign." "NADYA:" "Yeah that's heavy metal." "INIGO GILMORE:" "That's a heavy metal sign." "NADYA:" "You don't know?" "You haven't been to a heavy metal concert?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Not recently, I'm too old now." "NADYA:" "Do you know where we can find the smuggler everybody calls "the turk"?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Nadya's speaking to a local journalist who's covered the case." "NADYA:" "We're trying to find him." "Source:" "The neighborhood's called grivitza." "NADYA:" "Grivitza." "Goodnight." "She says that she has seen him and that he has a dark blue Jeep." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So we've just got to go down there and try and find him." "NADYA:" "We have been warned that he is going to be hostile." "INIGO GILMORE:" "We've got an address for the turk." "We know that car he drives, we know the supermarket he shops in, hopefully this will lead us to our suspect." "[ANSWERING MACHING BEEP]." "Amr, it's inigo." "I was trying to call you from shumen, just to kind of give you an update." "This is one heck of a weird place," "I'll tell you that much." "The police don't wanna talk, it seems like people are trying to cover up what's happening here." "Hold on who's that?" "Antiquities are moving through here, that's for sure." "But is the turkish suspect really just a weekend treasure hunter?" "Maybe I've only just scratched the surface." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So this turkish guy." "NADYA:" "We know that he has a dark blue Jeep." "INIGO GILMORE:" "And we know the neighborhood." "He's been arrested in connection with this." "He's apparently out on bail." "If he's the one that brought these antiquities from Turkey he'll be able to tell us how they made their way here." "But whether he would actually be prepared to talk about it?" "NADYA:" "This is what concerns me." "INIGO GILMORE:" "You imagine like a big garage where you park the car, but they're more like sheds, corrugated, iron sheds." "Antiquities being held in there was kind of rather bizarre." "We should get out of here." "Let's go." "Let's go George." "It doesn't feel comfortable." "Pull in here, i think it's over there." "We go to his local supermarket." "NADYA:" "Yeah for a moment i had thought that it was." "INIGO GILMORE:" "It was dark blue as well." "NADYA:" "Yeah." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I don't know." "It could be the same model." "It would look very similar." "It's a dirt-poor area, you know, the garage is next to these kind of crumbling apartment buildings." "This is where the turkish guy lives." "If i could just talk to him, i can fill in some blanks in my investigation." "Are you a bit nervous?" "NADYA:" "I don't know if they're going to be hostile against us." "INIGO GILMORE:" "We got to the apartment block." "The buzzers on the outside door had been scratched away." "There's no way to identify who lived in which apartment." "Is that his name?" "NADYA:" "No." "INIGO GILMORE:" "What's this?" "NADYA:" "Eulogies." "INIGO GILMORE:" "To the dead." "NADYA:" "Yup." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Maybe the turk had been tipped off." "Some sketchy looking dudes are checking us out." "Let's go back to the car." "That's not him, right?" "NADYA:" "No." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Careful, careful, careful." "NADYA:" "So what do you think we should do?" "You fight him or i fight him?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "He's getting in his car and driving off." "No sign of the turk." "We call off the search." "On the way to the hotel a member of my crew is approached by a local man who said he's sick of all the lies and needs to share a secret that would expose some key people in the town." "He made it clear that if anyone knew that he'd been talking to me;" "He'd be toast." "He's asked us to meet him here at this bar." "What is the time now?" "NADYA:" "It's 10:30 almost." "INIGO GILMORE:" "He should be here, any moment now." "[PHONE BUZZING]" "[NADYA SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGAUGE]." "What's going on, is he here?" "NADYA:" "Uh, no, he's not coming now." "INIGO GILMORE:" "He's not coming?" "NADYA:" "No, he said that he's very worried." "And he wants us to call him on another line." "Maybe more secure i don't know." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Does he speak English or no?" "NADYA:" "I have to translate." "Hi, how are you?" "DEALER:" "I'm okay." "NADYA:" "What spooked you?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Was he afraid for his life?" "NADYA:" "Was it the cameras, or?" "DEALER:" "Look, I'm not worried about myself, but for my family." "It's common for the mafia to protect such people." "INIGO GILMORE:" "He believes that the established smuggling routes that organized crime groups use are the same routes that the antiquities come through." "NADYA:" "He says that there is no other way." "It's the same people." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So the turkish guy that was arrested in connection with this, we went to look for him and couldn't find him." "Is he lying low?" "Where does he think he is?" "NADYA:" "Where can we find the turk who was keeping the antiquities in the garage?" "DEALER:" "Istanbul, right now." "NADYA:" "Istanbul." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Istanbul?" "NADYA:" "Everybody told us he was here, when did he leave?" "DEALER:" "Basically the turk's case ended without sentencing." "They want to sweep it under the rug." "NADYA:" "So he said the looters never get sentenced." "This gave him the opportunity to have like 48 hours to leave the country." "INIGO GILMORE:" "What do you mean?" "NADYA:" "He just fled the country." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So why are the police saying that he's checking with the parole officer?" "NADYA:" "Then why are the police saying they see him every day?" "DEALER:" "I don't know." "NADYA:" "He doesn't know." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I can't believe it." "I am now being told the turk's been in Turkey this whole time." "Who can i trust in shumen?" "The police and this alleged whistle-blower were no shows." "Nadya was the one person who didn't stand me up." "So what did you think about that phone call?" "NADYA:" "It was weird." "INIGO GILMORE:" "It was a little bit weird, isn't it?" "NADYA:" "Yeah." "INIGO GILMORE:" "She went back to her room." "But my mind's still racing." "I have some things to work out." "I was pretty happy to wake up this morning because at one stage last night, i feared i might wake up in a ditch." "We found out a lot but in many ways we are still not completely clear about what happened here." "If the turkish guy has gone, then, that's pretty significant and it's also quite troubling because the police have been telling us he's been checking in with the parole officer every day." "So only one person could be right." "Gotta get out of this sketchy ass place." "I've looked into such things in the past, but this place feels really (Bleep) Dodgy." "And it's time to get out of dodge." "My stomach's been really bad." "I don't know what it was maybe some kinda kebab or something." "Oh jeez." "Ugh." "I got a call from amr, the monuments men are out." "They have been to hell and back." "It puts my risk here into perspective." "♫" "[MEN SPEAKING IN ARABIC]." "AMR AL-AZM:" "You scared the life out of me." "Damn you." "So this is the storage room that the Isis guys have set up where they bring the dealers to and then this is a deal that's about to go down." "INIGO GILMORE:" "One of the group operating inside islamic state controlled areas has managed to capture this extraordinary meeting taking place." "And you realize this is a big cash cow for islamic state." "Which is the looter?" "On the left?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yeah, and these guys are the buyers." "INIGO GILMORE:" "They've just done a deal." "They've just shaken hands." "AMR AL-AZM:" "And now he's gonna pay him." "INIGO GILMORE:" "And it's all done in U.S. dollars?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yup." "INIGO GILMORE:" "What is this mosaic?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "What you're actually seeing is the looters themselves." "This is still in the ground it's not been pulled out yet, and the looters are cleaning it up." "They're videoing it as they do the clean up to use this for promotional purposes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So they do this advertising online almost?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Yes, absolutely." "It might be offered for about $10,000 to $15,000." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So that's inside and then once it's out it's more." "AMR AL-AZM:" "Oh, 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, easily." "INIGO GILMORE:" "You can get up to $70,000 for that?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Some of those really nice mosaics can go for 100,000, 150,000, 200,000." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Really?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "It'll probably get sold and this is the only record we'll have of this." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Where's it gonna end up?" "AMR AL-AZM:" "Who knows, it could end up in London, it could end up in Paris, it could end up in the U.S., in New York, anywhere." "INIGO GILMORE:" "This mosaic is documented, so if it ever turns up at a high-end auction house in the west, there's proof that it was looted." "One day the war will end and the Syrian people will want to recover their stolen heritage." "NPR NEWS:" "In addition to the human toll," "Isis continued its assault on Syria's cultural heritage." "The British museum says that it's holding an object that was looted from Syria and will return it only when it's safe to do so." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I finally return home." "But a disturbing thought is spinning through my mind." "Looted Syrian objects are coming this far, and art collectors are buying them, though they must surely know they're handling blood antiquities." "Hi." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Hey, how are you?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "I'm good, nice to see you." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Nice to finally meet you." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Good to meet you." "So, Amr said you're the man to talk to." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah, how is he by the way?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "He's okay." "Dr. mark altaweel's expertise in middle east archaeology has led Scotland yard's art and antiques division to rely on him as an authenticator." "So I'm hoping he can verify whether the hittite head or the pieces from the shumen garage are real." "This was shown to me by a dealer in gaziantep." "What i was told was that it's a hittite head." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Could be something that derives from that period and it looks like he's frowning almost, which is not exactly a typical hittite thing." "But at the same time the thickness looks about right, the stone looks correct, so if it is a fake, it's a very good fake." "Of course." "INIGO GILMORE:" "It's likely to be genuine." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah and i think it's irrelevant in this case because most art dealers are going to say it's good enough and they're going to buy it and they're gonna try to sell it off, i.E. Money is going to be exchanged." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Um, i was posing undercover as a buyer and they told me the price tag for this would be $3,000." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Okay, i mean, I've seen it far more than that to be honest, for relief pieces." "And broken relief too." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So it was a bargain." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah, it may have been actually a bargain." "The head is usually where the value is so i wouldn't be surprised if they just chopped off the head." "If you can't steal the whole thing then you go for the head." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Is this the kind of thing that" "Isis would loot?" "DR ALTAWEEL:" "I mean, it could be Isis." "It could be any one of those groups operating out of Syria to be honest." "They're all doing it, basically." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I managed to get to see these at the basement of the shumen museum." "The local experts insist that these are authentic Roman first century ad." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Obviously looted." "All of them." "Obviously." "I mean, it's so clear." "I mean there's no way that piece would be exported legitimately i can tell you for sure, none of these pieces are exported legitimately." "INIGO GILMORE:" "There's, you know, thousands upon thousands of pieces making their way out of Syria." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Are they infiltrating European capitals?" "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Well, we are in London, which is one of the world's greatest art markets and certainly antiquities are in there." "And this is where i have something for you." "Um, i have a piece that looks to be, to me, looted at some point." "I don't know exactly when but i can trace directly to a specific site to Syria." "This is a door lintel basically." "Lintels were decorative pieces, they hung 'em up in houses." "But they are all very different and that makes it identifiable." "So when you see these things uh, in a book and then you see them in a shop you know something's happening." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So this is the lintel itself?" "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah." "INIGO GILMORE:" "And this was taken where?" "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Uh, in the shop." "INIGO GILMORE:" "In that shop, right in the heart of Mayfair." "Which is like." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah right in the heart of London." "INIGO GILMORE:" "The ritziest, wealthiest area of London." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "But it makes sense!" "I mean, i certainly don't want to say people are buying antiquities on purpose." "I don't know what the shop owners would tell a potential buyer, but certainly the buyer should know they are potentially supporting something that can fund violence." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Can you show me the shop?" "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yes, absolutely." "Let's go look." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Okay, just give me a moment, i just need to use the bathroom." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So mark, my plan is to go in with this little hidden camera to try and capture some images." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Good, i mean, it'll be potentially useful evidence, if we can demonstrate the object is still being sold." "He wants 150,000 pounds that's $80,000." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So if it's sold, you know, that's big money for him." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "Yeah, absolutely." "Just go around there." "In the back, through the alley, you'll see it." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Okay, great." "I managed to get in there." "Salesman:" "Hello." "INIGO GILMORE:" "My eyes are scanning around the shop, trying to identify the lintel, i look at the shelves near the front, i look around the sides, i even approach the dealer's desk." "Do you have anything that would work as a lintel?" "Anything classical that would work as a lintel, above a fireplace?" "Shopkeeper:" "Not really, no." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Not really?" "Is he hiding this thing?" "Is this guy on to us?" "Or was it already sold?" "INIGO GILMORE:" "Sorry mark." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "That's alright." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Well i got inside the place, but i couldn't see the lintel." "DR ALTAWEEL:" "This is why it's difficult to catch these guys because it's here now, it's for a certain period of time you might see it but then it's gone." "And then it's, you never know what's going to happen to it." "[PHONE RINGING]." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I reach out to the met police." "Hello, it's inigo gilmore from national geographic." "I'm calling to report a crime." "Alright well let's talk later then." "Police don't want to talk, but maybe i can report the crime to someone else who might be able to do something about it." "So I'm here to meet tasoula hadjitofi." "She's a cultural advocate who's been tracking looted art for the past 30 years." "And I'm late." "Tasoula hadjitofi's ngo walk of truth engages the public about the importance of protecting global heritage." "She works closely with the British parliament," "Scotland yard, and interpol." "TASOULA:" "Combating art trafficking is like playing chess, you know?" "One move and then you see what they're doing and you get another move but at the end of it you collect all of these bits and pieces of information and you create a puzzle, it's like a mosaic of information." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So you think my mosaic is only just begun." "TASOULA:" "Yes." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I only have the first pieces." "TASOULA:" "Absolutely." "You began your mosaic." "But if you do it a lot more, the colors and the shapes will be much more clear to you." "INIGO GILMORE:" "The reality is that there's a huge market out there." "And perhaps there's a pipeline coming out of Syria into Turkey and further into Europe." "TASOULA:" "Yes." "I mean, destruction and looting of cultural heritage is something that has been happening for centuries." "The issue is we must not buy them." "And if we can make the link and say," ""when you buy looted art you're paying money to extremists to bomb you,"" "perhaps the message is more clear." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So mark told me to come and see you but mark also told me about a lintel." "TASOULA:" "I know the piece." "You don't need to tell me." "I know the piece." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I couldn't actually see it there." "But mark was insisting that it was there." "I was desperate to identify." "TASOULA:" "I know it was there, i saw it myself." "I went myself and saw it." "I know it was there." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So if it was there then it must have been sold to someone and then it's gone." "TASOULA:" "No." "INIGO GILMORE:" "And that's the most depressing thing about it." "TASOULA:" "You don't need to worry, it's been taken care of." "INIGO GILMORE:" "It's not sold?" "TASOULA:" "No." "INIGO GILMORE:" "So why is it not there?" "TASOULA:" "Because i reported it to Scotland yard, i can't tell you very much, but don't worry it's not sold." "INIGO GILMORE:" "Really?" "TASOULA:" "It's in safe hands." "Yes." "To your good health, cheers." "INIGO GILMORE:" "I would have loved to have caught that antiquities dealer red-handed but i suppose what matters is that the lintel is off the market." "It's one small victory in this vast invisible war." "Tasoula's dedicated her life to the fight, but I've only just begun." "I think of Amr and the monuments men on the front lines, i think of the turk, and the institutional corruption that sweeps truth under the rug." "This black market in looted antiquities is larger, more complex, and more insidious than i ever imagined." "But what can we do?" "Sure, Isis should be prosecuted for war crimes, but buyers and dealers need to be named and shamed too." "I feel it's high time we all become culture crime watchers." "Because a world with no regard for its heritage is not the kind of world that i want to live in."