Parallelae Vitae: Antiquities Smuggling and Hidden Incomes in Greece

Nowadays, the antiquities-smuggling phenomenon seems more complicated than many researchers thought before. Antiquity looting is delinquent behaviour and a criminal activity. Hence, it is closely connected to many of the other problems that Greece is currently facing. This article tries to set the smuggling problem in a wider frame. More specifically, many researchers have pointed to the long-term inability of Greece’s tax services to detect income hiding. This has led to increased tax evasion and a shadow economic phenomenon. Moreover, researchers and institutions have made the conclusion that self-employed persons / freelancers in Greece have an increased capability for income hiding, irrespective of the origin of the money. A thorough examination of the occupations of 497 arrested people in Greece revealed that, indeed, the majority of them fall in the self-employed/freelance category. The results of this article are based on the 291 official arrests that took place from 1999 to 2015.