Illicit traffic in works of art is by no means a new phenomenon, nor is it confined to any particular part of the world. As a form of crime it is, however, expanding rapidly world-wide, and the emergence of new factors such as the opening-up of new outlets and the growing demand in the newly affluent States, greater ease of communication and indeed, the remarkable increase in the value of works of art as a consequence of the influx of capital into the market bodes ill for any attempt to stem the tide, still less turn it.
