US colonel to lead antiquities anti-theft unit

Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, is to establish the city’s first task force “dedicated to investigating and prosecuting antiquities theft and trafficking” according to Matthew Bogdanos, the lawyer who is to head the unit. Mr Bogdanos is better known as the US Marine Corps Reserves colonel who led the investigation into the looting of the Baghdad Museum and helped recover more than 5,000 artefacts.

Mr Bogdanos is returning to his civilian work as assistant district attorney in Manhattan, a position he has held since 1988, and intends to trace antiquities smuggled from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. There are also reports that he is negotiating with Hollywood studios to turn his recent book Thieves of Baghdad into a film.