Heritage under Siege: The Case of Gaza and a Mysterious Apollo

Abstract

In the summer of 2013, newspapers around the world reported the discovery in Gaza of a rare bronze statue of the Greek god Apollo. A few months after the discovery, the statue disappeared, and its exact location and state of preservation have been unknown ever since. In November 2017, at the very beginning of my doctoral research regarding the impact of organized crime on cultural heritage and archaeological research, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Gaza. The Apollo sculpture was the pretext that allowed me to visit many sites around Gaza City and to address several interlocutors about the protection of endangered heritage in the region. The aim of this article, which is based on my doctoral thesis, is to follow in the footsteps of my investigation into the fate of the Gaza Apollo and to provide some introductory elements about the history of heritage legislation in Gaza, the illicit trafficking situation in the region and of course to take stock of the hypotheses concerning the situation of this sculpture called the Apollo of Gaza.