My husband and I have both found meg teeth on our own fossil hunts along the coast of the Chesapeake *and* bought them from dealers, so I find this deeply fascinating and weird (albeit not remotely surprising)

Donna Yates@profdonnayates.bsky.social · yesterday

Why would anyone pay $38,000 for a Megalodon shark tooth that they could buy now for less than $1,000? I explore answer that question in my latest publication: **Illusions of Rarity and Value in Competing Megalodon Tooth Markets** Available free and open access. doi.org/10.1007/978-...

CALL FOR JOURNAL PAPERS: "Natural Heritage as Cultural Property: legal and social dimensions to the collection, display, and sale of natural history specimens", a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Property edited by @p-stewens.bsky.social & me. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Natural history specimens are #culturalproperty. If you have an idea for a paper that drives this point home, @profdonnayates.bsky.social and I want to hear from you for our special issue in the International Journal of Cultural Property. Find the #cfp here: paul-stewens.com/news/cfp-nat...

Why would anyone pay $38,000 for a Megalodon shark tooth that they could buy now for less than $1,000? I explore answer that question in my latest publication: **Illusions of Rarity and Value in Competing Megalodon Tooth Markets** Available free and open access. doi.org/10.1007/978-...

I guarantee this will be the weirdest story you hear today. And you know what? It's even weirder than what is published. Take it from me...a T. rex will bite you. They make people do weird things. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Billionaires’ T. Rex Obsession Has Turned Fossils Into Red-Hot Drama

As the battle for dinosaur bones heightens, paleontologists, collectors and auction houses navigate a Wild West market.

bloomberg.com

After WG1 in Warsaw last May and WG3 in Budapest this July, WG2 will celebrate this year's workshop in Santiago de Compostela on September 29. The call for proposals is still open. If you are not a member and want to participate, join the action! cpp4all.eu

Are you interested in funding and networking opportunities in Cultural Property Protection? Follow @culturalprope4all.bsky.social and perhaps join the COST action.

This Thursday July 2, at 16:00 CET, don't miss the webinar: "Digital traceability and provenance: Multi-scale 3D modelling within the ECCCH Framework" by Mohamed Soliman Interested and not a member of the Action yet? Join! cpp4all.eu

SLAAPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) stifle academic freedom. Defamation law in some places leave academics "exposed to retaliatory litigation" for sharing societally relevant research. Mark Hanna's new paper on SLAAPS in NZ hits VERY close to home for me doi.org/10.1080/1757...

SLAPPs in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article examines strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on how civil procedure can be used to suppress public-interest expression. Drawing o...

doi.org

We've just launched our website! Have a look at what the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime is about here: unescochairculturecrime.org

Mayanists and Mesoamerica people: does anyone happen to have a scan of or access to Sylvanus Morley's 1933 and/or 1934 field notebook/diary? I'm looking for something that would be on one page or less but have had no luck accessing the diary.

Call for Abstracts: “The Protection of Cultural Heritage in Europe: A Comparative Legal and Policy Agenda”, 14 May, Warsaw. This workshop is fully funded for selected attendees, but only members of the CPP4ALL Cost Action can attend. Sign up to join the action here: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

A great opportunity to publish.

Donna Yates@profdonnayates.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Cambridge Elements Critical Heritage Studies seeks book proposals. We're looking for exciting, boundary pushing methods, theories, ideas that are too long for a single journal paper, but to pressing to wait on. It's a series for exciting heritage work. Let's see it! www.cambridge.org/core/publica...

Join our Chair at the International Symposium on "Cultural Property Protection: An enabler for cooperation in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region", 20–21 April, Nicosia, Cyprus. Details and Registration here:

Cultural Property Protection

20–21 April 2026 – Constantine Leventis Auditorium, A.G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus

cpp-cyprus-2026.eratosthenes.org.cy

Would you like to visit us to work on topics related to Cultural Heritage and Crime? The UNESCO Chair will host a funded Short Term Scientific Mission through COST Action Cultural Property Protection for All. Only members of the Action can apply so request to join here: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

New Publication! "Variably Legal and Irregularly Regulated: Global Markets in Collectable Antiquities, Wildlife, and Fossils" by Annette Hübschle, Simon Mackenzie, and our chair, Donna Yates. In the exciting book "Variably Legal Markets Rethinking Markets and Crime"

Variably Legal Markets: Rethinking Markets and Crime

This book offers a novel perspective for conceptualizing legality in market exchanges. It challenges the conventional binary of ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ markets by introducing the concept of variably…

routledge.com

Interested in art crime, antiquities trafficking, provenance, repatriation, or cultural property law? Sign up for the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime Opportunities List for learning, conference, and work opportunities! anonymousswisscollector.com/opportunities

Blog post! Performance of Security at the Drents Museum Helmet Return Press Conference www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2026/04/perf...

They "TA-DA'd" the recovered helmet! They even gave it a "drie...twee...een!" before they removed the cloth. Then there was silence followed by a slow, uncertain applause. A very "is this a clapping moment?" vibe from the attendees of the Helmet of Coțofenești press conference.

Performance of security at the press conference to announce the recovery of the stolen Helmet of Coțofenești.

Cambridge Elements Critical Heritage Studies seeks book proposals. We're looking for exciting, boundary pushing methods, theories, ideas that are too long for a single journal paper, but to pressing to wait on. It's a series for exciting heritage work. Let's see it! www.cambridge.org/core/publica...

Critical Heritage Studies

Welcome to Cambridge Core

cambridge.org

Join us at the REVITALISER Cultural Property Protection Summer School in Cyprus. Participants explore cutting-edge topics including remote aensing, AI-based analysis, criminological approaches to heritage crime. We can keep the fee low because it's subsidised by the EU revitaliser.eu/summer-schoo...

Cultural Property Protection for All offers Conference Support Grants for members. Grants up to 1000 EUR to present at a conference relate to CPP. The Chair is an active member of this network; if you aren't a member of this COST Network, request to join the Action here: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

Sign up for the Cultural Property Protection for All COST Action: it is a lot of EU funding for networking on heritage provenance, monitoring, crime, and protection. Travel grants, funded events, etc. If you work in this area, join up: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

Cultural Property Protection for All

The discovery of a message stating “With the trafficking of works of art we support our family” in the hideout of Mafia Boss Messina Denaro, arrested after 30 years on the run, underscores...

cost.eu

Consider following @unescochair-chec.bsky.social for news and opportunities from the new UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime. Also on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/unes...?

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime | LinkedIn

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime | 339 followers on LinkedIn. Exploring the present and future of heritage crime | The technologies, environmental conditions, and criminal opportun...

linkedin.com

New Publication: "Exploring Aspects of the Online Trade in Antiquities Through Snapshot Analysis" co-authored by @profdonnayates.blsky.social and Emily Peacock. ln the new Elgar Research Handbook on Art, Culture and Heritage Law www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/res...

Research Handbook on Art, Culture and Heritage Law

‘This masterly Handbook explains the legal implications of the UNESCO definition of culture: “the whole complex of distinctive … features that characterize a society or social group”. It is an…

e-elgar.com

I know I'm quite quiet here, but I wanted to let you all know about my new role: UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime. Thinking about the Heritage Crime of the present and the future. I'm looking forward to collaborating on this topic.

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime@unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 4mo ago

@ProfDonnaYates.bsky.social has been appointed as the New UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime. Find out more: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/news/donna-y... #Heritage #Archaeology #Criminology #UNESCO

Read all of antiquities dealer Michel van Rijn’s odd and amazing early blog online here. It is spectacular. #artcrime #archaeology www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2025/11/read...

Through the narratives of violence and control in auction sales of Pacific cultural objects, I consider consumer desire: "Marketing, Narratives, and Consumer Desire within Auction Catalogs of Cultural Objects" out now, Open Access, in Advances in Archaeological Practice. doi.org/10.1017/aap....

Colleagues at Maastricht University. I'm running for University Council. I would truly appreciate your vote. Take a moment and vote here: elections.maastrichtuniversity.nl and if you would like to see the platform I'm running on, here: leadmaastricht.nl