iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Donna Yates

Sunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

My husband and I have both found meg teeth on our own fossil hunts along the coast of the Chesapeake *and* bought them from dealers, so I find this deeply fascinating and weird (albeit not remotely surprising)

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

CALL FOR JOURNAL PAPERS: "Natural Heritage as Cultural Property: legal and social dimensions to the collection, display, and sale of natural history specimens", a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Property edited by @p-stewens.bsky.social & me. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Paul Stewens @p-stewens.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Natural history specimens are #culturalproperty. If you have an idea for a paper that drives this point home, @profdonnayates.bsky.social and I want to hear from you for our special issue in the International Journal of Cultural Property. Find the #cfp here: paul-stewens.com/news/cfp-nat...

Old postcard showing the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna, facing each other in parallel

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Why would anyone pay $38,000 for a Megalodon shark tooth that they could buy now for less than $1,000? I explore answer that question in my latest publication: **Illusions of Rarity and Value in Competing Megalodon Tooth Markets** Available free and open access. doi.org/10.1007/978-...

A hand next to a two black megalodon sharks teeth. The larger toot is as long as the index finger of the hand.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I guarantee this will be the weirdest story you hear today. And you know what? It's even weirder than what is published. Take it from me...a T. rex will bite you. They make people do weird things. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

bloomberg.com

Billionaires’ T. Rex Obsession Has Turned Fossils Into Red-Hot Drama

As the battle for dinosaur bones heightens, paleontologists, collectors and auction houses navigate a Wild West market.

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CPP4ALL @culturalprope4all.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

After WG1 in Warsaw last May and WG3 in Budapest this July, WG2 will celebrate this year's workshop in Santiago de Compostela on September 29. The call for proposals is still open. If you are not a member and want to participate, join the action! cpp4all.eu

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Are you interested in funding and networking opportunities in Cultural Property Protection? Follow @culturalprope4all.bsky.social and perhaps join the COST action.

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CPP4ALL @culturalprope4all.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

This Thursday July 2, at 16:00 CET, don't miss the webinar: "Digital traceability and provenance: Multi-scale 3D modelling within the ECCCH Framework" by Mohamed Soliman Interested and not a member of the Action yet? Join! cpp4all.eu

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

SLAAPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) stifle academic freedom. Defamation law in some places leave academics "exposed to retaliatory litigation" for sharing societally relevant research. Mark Hanna's new paper on SLAAPS in NZ hits VERY close to home for me doi.org/10.1080/1757...

doi.org

SLAPPs in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article examines strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on how civil procedure can be used to suppress public-interest expression. Drawing o...

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Reposted by Donna Yates

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

We've just launched our website! Have a look at what the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime is about here: unescochairculturecrime.org

unescochairculturecrime.org

Homepage | UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Mayanists and Mesoamerica people: does anyone happen to have a scan of or access to Sylvanus Morley's 1933 and/or 1934 field notebook/diary? I'm looking for something that would be on one page or less but have had no luck accessing the diary.

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UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Call for Abstracts: “The Protection of Cultural Heritage in Europe: A Comparative Legal and Policy Agenda”, 14 May, Warsaw. This workshop is fully funded for selected attendees, but only members of the CPP4ALL Cost Action can attend. Sign up to join the action here: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

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Reposted by Donna Yates

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Join our Chair at the International Symposium on "Cultural Property Protection: An enabler for cooperation in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region", 20–21 April, Nicosia, Cyprus. Details and Registration here:

cpp-cyprus-2026.eratosthenes.org.cy

Cultural Property Protection

20–21 April 2026 – Constantine Leventis Auditorium, A.G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus

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UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Would you like to visit us to work on topics related to Cultural Heritage and Crime? The UNESCO Chair will host a funded Short Term Scientific Mission through COST Action Cultural Property Protection for All. Only members of the Action can apply so request to join here: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

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UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

New Publication! "Variably Legal and Irregularly Regulated: Global Markets in Collectable Antiquities, Wildlife, and Fossils" by Annette Hübschle, Simon Mackenzie, and our chair, Donna Yates. In the exciting book "Variably Legal Markets Rethinking Markets and Crime"

routledge.com

Variably Legal Markets: Rethinking Markets and Crime

This book offers a novel perspective for conceptualizing legality in market exchanges. It challenges the conventional binary of ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ markets by introducing the concept of variably…

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Interested in art crime, antiquities trafficking, provenance, repatriation, or cultural property law? Sign up for the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime Opportunities List for learning, conference, and work opportunities! anonymousswisscollector.com/opportunities

anonymousswisscollector.com

Opportunities List

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Blog post! Performance of Security at the Drents Museum Helmet Return Press Conference www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2026/04/perf...

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

They "TA-DA'd" the recovered helmet! They even gave it a "drie...twee...een!" before they removed the cloth. Then there was silence followed by a slow, uncertain applause. A very "is this a clapping moment?" vibe from the attendees of the Helmet of Coțofenești press conference.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Performance of security at the press conference to announce the recovery of the stolen Helmet of Coțofenești.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Cambridge Elements Critical Heritage Studies seeks book proposals. We're looking for exciting, boundary pushing methods, theories, ideas that are too long for a single journal paper, but to pressing to wait on. It's a series for exciting heritage work. Let's see it! www.cambridge.org/core/publica...

cambridge.org

Critical Heritage Studies

Welcome to Cambridge Core

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UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Join us at the REVITALISER Cultural Property Protection Summer School in Cyprus. Participants explore cutting-edge topics including remote aensing, AI-based analysis, criminological approaches to heritage crime. We can keep the fee low because it's subsidised by the EU revitaliser.eu/summer-schoo...

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Reposted by Donna Yates

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime @unescochair-chec.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Cultural Property Protection for All offers Conference Support Grants for members. Grants up to 1000 EUR to present at a conference relate to CPP. The Chair is an active member of this network; if you aren't a member of this COST Network, request to join the Action here: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Sign up for the Cultural Property Protection for All COST Action: it is a lot of EU funding for networking on heritage provenance, monitoring, crime, and protection. Travel grants, funded events, etc. If you work in this area, join up: www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...

cost.eu

Cultural Property Protection for All

The discovery of a message stating “With the trafficking of works of art we support our family” in the hideout of Mafia Boss Messina Denaro, arrested after 30 years on the run, underscores...

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I know I'm quite quiet here, but I wanted to let you all know about my new role: UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime. Thinking about the Heritage Crime of the present and the future. I'm looking forward to collaborating on this topic.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Read all of antiquities dealer Michel van Rijn’s odd and amazing early blog online here. It is spectacular. #artcrime #archaeology www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2025/11/read...

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Through the narratives of violence and control in auction sales of Pacific cultural objects, I consider consumer desire: "Marketing, Narratives, and Consumer Desire within Auction Catalogs of Cultural Objects" out now, Open Access, in Advances in Archaeological Practice. doi.org/10.1017/aap....

doi.org

Marketing, Narratives, and Consumer Desire within Auction Catalogs of Cultural Objects | Advances in Archaeological Practice | Cambridge Core

Marketing, Narratives, and Consumer Desire within Auction Catalogs of Cultural Objects - Volume 13 Issue 1

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Colleagues at Maastricht University. I'm running for University Council. I would truly appreciate your vote. Take a moment and vote here: elections.maastrichtuniversity.nl and if you would like to see the platform I'm running on, here: leadmaastricht.nl

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

A film that takes place where you’re from

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Holy heck, and this is being used to sell luxury handbags? This is very my research times a million.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Well I've just submitted my application to create a new UNESCO chair in Global Heritage and Emerging Crime. Let's see what they think!

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Reposted by Donna Yates

Gregor Mathes @ischi94.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

I’m looking to hire a postdoc (100%, 22 months, salary significantly above the standard postdoc in Austria or Germany). The position is set to begin on 1 June 2025. The project explores how biases in the fossil record affect our ability to use past biodiversity data for modern conservation. 1/3

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WOinActie Limburg🟥 @woinactielimburg.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

🟥 Maastricht University is on strike today to protest devastating cuts in higher ed 🟥 👉 Show up @ Vrijthof @ 12:30! 👉 Bring your colleagues! 👉 Post your photos & tag us! 👉 Help us to spread the word - share this post! #WOinACTIE #DefendMaastrichtUniversity #KabinetSlooptHogerOnderwijs #StakingHO

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Reposted by Donna Yates

Maastricht University @maastrichtu.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Today is not just about UM but also about Limburg and education in NL! You are still in time to convince colleagues and students to join. Does somebody need convincing? That is why WOinActie created a video series addressing the key questions. Visit the video series here: edu.nl/paw8e #WoinActie

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Maastricht University @maastrichtu.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

The strike in Maastricht is on, come and join us! 🟥 Organised by FNV, AOb & MOSA. Here's the plan: 🕛 12:00 Meet & walk to Vrijthof 🎶 12:30 Music + free fries 📢 13:00 Speeches & music 🚶‍♀️ 14:00 March through city 🛍️ 14:45 Strike market Full info & updates 👉 edu.nl/xaa3q #WOinActie

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

People interested in antiquities trafficking research, take a moment to read "In Want of Methodological Rigor: A Critique of Suber et al. (2022)" by Michelle Fabiani and @dremilinesmith.bsky.social. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

In Want of Methodological Rigor: A Critique of Suber et al. (2022) | International Journal of Cultural Property | Cambridge Core

In Want of Methodological Rigor: A Critique of Suber et al. (2022)

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Sigh. I have a photograph that I took of that door in 2007 behind me in my office right now. A small but painful loss.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

I've spent a lot of time on Leonardo Patterson and have published no less than 4 academic journal papers that involve him. I suppose I always thought I'd meet him. I'll share the papers here (all open access). They barely scratch the surface of this man's remarkable life in the illicit antiquities.

anonymousswisscollector.com

Leonardo Patterson has Died at age 82

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

If anyone here has access to a PDF of this article, I'd love a copy. The amount of my life that I've spent on Patterson's life is no small amount. It would be interesting to see what the times said about him.

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