The head of UNESCO is calling on the U.N. Security Council to adopt a ban on the illicit trafficking of cultural objects from conflict zones in Iraq and Syria.
Ahead of a conference on endangered heritage Wednesday, Irina Bokova told The Associated Press the trafficking of objects obtained through illegal excavations in both countries is an industry now worth between $7 billion and $15 billion.
"(A U.N. ban) is critical in order to curb the financial flows, because there is the other dark side of this process: that extremists are using this money to fund their activities," she told the AP.
"If the international community and the Security Council want to stop the financing of the terrorists, they need to look also at the trafficking of objects of art," she said.