I'm Italian, and my maternal grandfather was a "numismatist trader" (commerciante di numismatica). He made pretty good money in the '70s, when the field had a short-lived boom, but in short: don't ever do it for the money, the field is full of sharks that will happily part you from much-more-modern currency. Valuations are often pulled from thin air, even the most official-looking ones, and things that are supposed to be rare because of age (say, a Roman coin) end up being anything but - because they were coined in massive numbers.
As for supporting grave robbers: that's unlikely, unless you actually live in the Middle East (where the practice is still relatively easy to carry out). You can easily look at it in the opposite way: a lot of those countries will never have the interest or money to properly look after minor artefacts; so you might as well try to preserve things for them.
In terms of what to do with hoards like this one, it really depends on laws of the country - afaik in Italy they can't be sold to the public, they are automatically State property and that's it.
It's generally estimated that the vast majority of antiquities on the market are the product of illegal activity, though typically more less severe crimes than grave robbing. It's not a problem limited to the middle east, though looting is particularly severe there. I've seen it all over the US for example, a country with particularly strong antiquities laws.
People should avoid any antiquities that don't have clear provenance.
Comments
I'm Italian, and my maternal grandfather was a "numismatist trader" (commerciante di numismatica). He made pretty good money in the '70s, when the field had a short-lived boom, but in short: don't ever do it for the money, the field is full of sharks that will happily part you from much-more-modern currency. Valuations are often pulled from thin air, even the most official-looking ones, and things that are supposed to be rare because of age (say, a Roman coin) end up being anything but - because they were coined in massive numbers.
As for supporting grave robbers: that's unlikely, unless you actually live in the Middle East (where the practice is still relatively easy to carry out). You can easily look at it in the opposite way: a lot of those countries will never have the interest or money to properly look after minor artefacts; so you might as well try to preserve things for them.
In terms of what to do with hoards like this one, it really depends on laws of the country - afaik in Italy they can't be sold to the public, they are automatically State property and that's it.
It's generally estimated that the vast majority of antiquities on the market are the product of illegal activity, though typically more less severe crimes than grave robbing. It's not a problem limited to the middle east, though looting is particularly severe there. I've seen it all over the US for example, a country with particularly strong antiquities laws.
People should avoid any antiquities that don't have clear provenance.
Stay clear of the British Museum ;o)