Art for War: Heritage Looting, Blood Antiquities, and the International Fight against Terrorism Financing By Constanza MusuStanford University Press (2026)

This important new book dissects the fate of physical heritage during periods of armed conflict, social upheaval or as a result of “terrorism-networks”. Ostensibly this may seem a relatively novel IR subject in IR, but pondering more, it is apparent that challenges to cultural patrimony are as old as IR itself. From the moment the first colonial explorer invaded foreign soil or tangled with the customs of indigenous peoples, acts of witting or unwitting cultural degradation swiftly followed. Even within the discipline of IR, colonisation and the de-colonization of museums are at least a sub-specialism for students. The most recent manifestation of that niche speciality is our concentration on the implications for “terrorist-proliferation”. Like many things in life, when we look forensically for the “financial-empire”, cultural antiquities lead us to the “money-trail” causing global insecurity (pp. 3-15.)

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Costanza Musu examines how global perceptions of cultural heritage shifted from a purely archaeological concern to a core issue of international security and counterterrorism. Its core themes dissect how the purportedly cultural is enmeshed in the formidable structures of global “terrorism-financing”. Musu traces the “securitization” of heritage protection—how illegal trade in looted artifacts (often simplified as “blood antiquities”) from conflict zones, end up as crucial staples of the terrorist “money-tree” (pp. 2-25.) We are accustomed to the “blood diamonds” controversies which plagued West Africa. Musu places the focus particularly on the Middle East where she shows that mis-appropriation of cultural heritage has been directly linked to funding terrorist groups, perpetuating further violence (pp. 16-33.) Musu first sets out the historical scene in how artworks/antiquities came to be part of terror funding.

There are five substantial and well-researched chapters. The first examines the looting and trafficking of antiquities. It offers a detailed resume of a familiar subject and includes something of a potted history of looting. Its refreshing novelty is Musu’s emphasis on the emerging contemporary threat, changing dynamically in response to “terrorist-financing” demands. When one anatomizes the financial experience of armed conflicts or “societal-breakdown” in counties in the past, we often identified a pattern of opportunistic exploitation through........

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