That’s a wrap.. The #WCOMHelsinki Symposium was a success

On Monday and Tuesday, some 60-70 speakers and participants gathered together in the National Museum of Finland to discuss and debate issues regarding antiquities trafficking in Finland and the different responses from the museum, academic, and governmental communities. The symposium was a success and has given us much ideas for future research and collaboration… more about this later.

At the start of the symposium. Photo: Suzie Thomas.

If you weren’t able to join us in Helsinki, but still want to have a look at what’s been discussed there, then please check out the following Storify-post: https://storify.com/WCOM_Helsinki/wcomhelsinki-june-5-6-2017. We were happy to have a few ‘live-tweeters’ among our audience!

Our symposium also received some attention in the Finnish media, though not very much and with an emphasis on the looting and destruction of antiquities going on in Syria. See here the two news stories that have appeared:

MTV.fi: http://www.mtv.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/artikkeli/uutissuomalainen-lahi-idan-ryostettyja-muinaisesineita-todennakoisesti-myos-suomessa/6454898

YLE Svenska: https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2017/06/06/finland-genomfartsland-olagliga-konstskatter-i-vilken-utstrackning-ar-oklart

Finally, we would like to thank all the speakers and participants for making our symposium a success. We surely couldn’t have done this without you all!