'Trafficking' antiquities from Melos

The issue of looting and the destruction of archaeological sites is not a new one. Cecil Harcourt-Smith, at the Annual Meeting of Subscribers in July 1897 commented about the need for excavation on Melos:

The antiquities of the islands are in many instances still comparatively unexplored, and are subject to the caprice, or even the trafficking, of the ignorant peasantry, and it is therefore highly desirable that, before it is too late, everything that can be done should be done to place on record their valuable but steadily disappearing remains of art and history.