...assuming that they knew they were looted. You could make a case that, yes of course these items were looted, and they turned a blind eye to that. But you could also make a case that they trusted a 3rd party to validate the artifacts.

Don't forget this is the group that voluntarily funded research that eventually proved some of their most prized possessions were, in fact, forgeries[0], so we have to assume they have at least a modicum of ethics.

[0] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/03/museum-of...

They may have a moral code, but it is the sort of code that is OK with illegally smuggling artifacts that their own hired experts and lawyers were concerned were looted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby_smuggling_scandal

I'd suggest being open about forgery shows they're interested in getting their money's worth from their feeders.

So they share the moral code of as the great state-run museums of England, France, Italy, and Spain? That's good to know actually.

Yeah, cowardly thieves are as common as rats.

> But you could also make a case that they trusted a 3rd party to validate the artifacts.

Given the nature of the business, that would have been breathtakingly naive of them. There's a certain point at which naivety isn't credible.

It’s not a modicum of ethics, it’s ass-covering in the case of legal challenges from the countries where these items were looted. After several high-profile antiquities cases in the early 90s and 2000s, and a federal precedent out of New York, every museum was forced to do this kind of bare minimum due diligence to avoid prosecution. Prior to this, they were being brazenly in bed with organized criminal networks in buying this stuff.

Well...yes allegedly buying looted artifacts is bad, but that was already the headline. I didn't realize that allegations of sales tax evasion(? not sure if it was a charge, or just an interesting tidbit pointed out by prosecutors), a pretty pedestrian crime in comparison, would also accompany these charges. It's sort of like: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArsonMurderAndJa...