2022 03 09Combatting the pillaging of the world’s cultural heritageskylight gallery
E V E N T
featuring Colonel Matthew Bogdanos
Prix fixe dinner to follow
L O C A T I O N
S P O N S O R
Open to Coffee House and Salmagundi members
RSVP suggested; proof of vaccination is required for entry
Dinner reservations encouraged, as seating is limited.
Colonel Bogdanos is the chief on New York’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, the first of it kind in the world.
His talk will briefly trace how the idea for the unit began in Iraq and Afghanistan when he was the head of the international investigation into the looting of the Iraq Museum, the connection between antiquities trafficking and terrorist financing, and the current actions being taken in New York.
Colonel Bogdanos is the Chief on New York’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, the first of it kind in the world. His talk will briefly trace how the idea for the Unit began in Iraq and Afghanistan when he was the head of the international investigation into the looting of the Iraq Museum, the connection between antiquities trafficking and terrorist financing, and the current actions being taken in New York.
Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is a New York City homicide prosecutor, author, and middleweight boxer who holds advanced degrees in law and classics from Columbia University, and in national security from the Army War College. Recalled to active duty after losing his apartment near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he received a Bronze Star for counterterrorist operations in Afghanistan, before serving multiple tours in the Horn of Africa & Iraq, thereafter leading the international investigation into the looting of the Iraq Museum.
He has spoken in more than 175 cities in 27 countries—including to both Houses of British Parliament, the US Congress, Interpol, the United Nations, and the Peace Palace in The Hague—and received a 2005 National Humanities Medal from President George Bush for his work recovering Iraq’s priceless treasures, as well as Proclamations from the Cities of New York & Philadelphia. Deployed again for counter-terrorist operations to Afghanistan in 2009, he has since returned to the DA’s Office where he founded and is the Chief of New York’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit. Royalties from his book, Thieves of Baghdad, are donated to the Iraq Museum.
