(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121113-redlist-combo.photoblog600.jpg)Courtesy International Council of MuseumsThe images above show kinds of antiquities deemed at risk of being illicitly trafficked, but the objects themselves have not been stolen. From left: A wooden ceremonial stool from the Taíno culture of the Caribbean in the 11th to 15th centuries; a terracotta Nok head from Nigeria; a Paracas mantle or cloak from Peru in about 200 B.C.; a shabti or funerary figurine from Egypt in the 13th century B.C.By Ian Johnston, NBC NewsLONDON -- Ancient statues from Nigeria and Cambodia, colorful cloaks from Peru, ceremonial furniture from Haiti before Columbus and clay tablets inscribed with writing thousands of years old: The illegal trade in looted cultural artifacts is vast, poorly policed and highly profitable.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (http://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) But NBC News has learned that a new international body to gather "intelligence" about the illicit sale of some of the world's most beautiful and historic objects is set to be established.
Groups like the Taliban and al-Qaida are thought to raise funds in this way with suggestions that smuggling art and antiquities is the world's third most common form of trafficking after drugs and weapons, worth $6 billion or more a year (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/10/13727086-emergency-red-list-targets-syrias-looted-treasures?lite).
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