The ethics of art dealing

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Marks
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Export Controls ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Unesco Convention ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Source Countries

The ethics of dealing in antiquities may be discussed in two parts: first, the ethical standards that govern the trade and its relation to clients, and second, the new legal standards that affect dealers and collectors arising from political ambitions in the international relations between source and market nations. Friction between these competing interests began with the ratification of the UNESCO Convention in 1972 and the passage of the Cultural Property Implementation Act in 1983. Unrealistic political approaches to the illicit trade in antiquities have exacerbated rather than solved the problem. A resolution of the conflicts, contradictions, and ambiguities of the present situation can be achieved by stressing the safety of objects and archaeological sites over partisan goals. A satisfactory denouement can be achieved through a partnership between source countries and the market, through an abandonment of retentionist export controls, and through the establishment of an open, free, and rational coalition. Any solution to present difficulties ought to acknowledge the value of continuing to collect and preserve antiquities in private and public collections.

Trafficking in Cultural PropertyWhere Cultural Heritage Law and the International Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime Coincide

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Janet Blake
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Transnational Organized Crime ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Unesco Convention ◽  
Source Countries

The loss of their cultural treasures through illicit excavation, illegal export, and trafficking and the associated harm to national identity and the rights of their citizens presents a major challenge to many countries around the world. The source countries tend, on the whole, to be poorer developing States while the importing market countries are rich States such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. This chapter first provides a critical analysis of the international cultural heritage law governing this question, in particular the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Illicit Trade in Cultural Property and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on the Return of Stolen and Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Following this discussion, and as a contrast to the purely cultural heritage-based approach, it focuses on two complementary efforts to combat cultural property trafficking as an international or transnational crime: the 2000 ‘Palermo’ UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the 2017 ‘Nicosia’ Convention on Offences Relating to Cultural Property.

The Trade in Looted Antiquities and the Return of Cultural Property: A British Parliamentary Inquiry

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gill ◽  
Christopher Chippindale
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Culture Media ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
British Government ◽  
Property A ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Antiquities Market

The British parliamentary report on Cultural Property: Return and Illicit Trade was published in 2000. Three key areas were addressed: the illicit excavation and looting of antiquities, the identification of works of art looted by Nazis, and the return of cultural property now residing in British collections. The evidence presented by interested parties—including law enforcement agencies and dealers in antiquities—to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee is assessed against the analysis of collecting patterns for antiquities. The lack of self regulation by those involved in the antiquities market supports the view that the British Government needs to adopt more stringent legislation to combat the destruction of archaeological sites by looting.

scholarly journals Reality and Practicality: Challenges to Effective Cultural Property Policy on the Ground in Latin America

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 337-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Yates
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Regulatory Development ◽  
Source Countries

Abstract:Although on-the-ground preservation and policing is a major component of our international efforts to prevent the looting and trafficking of antiquities, the expectation placed on source countries may be beyond their capacity. This dependence on developing world infrastructure and policing may challenge our ability to effectively regulate this illicit trade. Using case studies generated from fieldwork in Belize and Bolivia, this paper discusses a number of these challenges to effective policy and offers some suggestions for future regulatory development.

scholarly journals Rogues, Robbers and Researchers: Robbery of Antiquities and Archaeology under the Present Legal Situation (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, May 5, 2007)

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Siehr
Keyword(s):  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Frankfurt Am Main ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Legal Situation ◽  
Art Dealers ◽  
Unesco Convention

The Institute for Archaeological Studies of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, organized a conference on legal issues concerning archaeology and theft of antiquities. This meeting was stimulated by the German statute (Kulturgüterrückgabegesetz version of May 18, 2007) implementing the UNESCO convention of November 14, 1970, the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Archaeologists are afraid that the new legal regime might encourage thieves and art dealers to localize their activities in Germany. Michael Müller-Karpe of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, Germany, articulated these fears. Five reports on tomb robbery in Africa (Peter Breunig), Europe (Rüdiger Krause), Mediterranean countries (Hans-Markus von Kaenel, Wulf Raeck), and the Near East (Jan-Waalke Meyer) gave a bleak picture of contemporary dangers to archaeological sites and archaeological objects. Kurt Siehr gave the paper, “Legal Aspects of the Protection of Cultural Property,” stressing that the ratification and implementation of the 1970 UNESCO convention will improve the protection of cultural property in Germany. However, he also emphasized that the implementing statute could have provided stronger measures: Germany should ratify the UNIDROIT Convention of June 24, 1995, on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects as already urged by most German archaeologists and museums.

scholarly journals Keeping the Barbarians at the Gates: The Promise of the UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions for Developing Countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 581
Author(s):  
Michael Goodyear
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
International Institute ◽  
Art World ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Source Countries

The illicit trade in cultural property is a global phenomenon, powered by criminal networks and smuggling trains that sacrifice local culture for the black market of the art world. Headlines featuring the Islamic State’s lucrative exchange in stolen cultural property, among other incidents, have raised the profile of the illicit cultural property trade on the global stage. Developing countries, as the most prominent source countries of cultural property, are particularly at risk. Existing scholarship has searched for a solution to this crisis, suggesting a new international treaty to protect cultural property or recommending the utilization of adjacent legal fields. However, these solutions overlook the ready benefits of two existing international treaties on cultural property, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”) and United Nations International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (“UNIDROIT”) Conventions. While the UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions do not provide an absolute solution to the illicit cultural property trade, they are accessible and underutilized options that are particularly calibrated to assist developing countries. Increased ratification of the UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions would grant source country States Parties the enforcement benefits of the import regulations and domestic court systems of market country States Parties, and the strength of the Conventions would rise as the number of signatories increases. The costs imposed on developing country signatories are deliberately low to aid them in protection and recovery. Furthermore, the adoption of these two Conventions does not constrain States Parties from contemplating and implementing additional mechanisms to further protect cultural property. The UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions thus offer ready, underutilized options for developing countries to better protect their cultural property.

Looting and the Antiquities Market

Classics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patty Gerstenblith ◽  
Corinne R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Art Market ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Unesco Convention ◽  
Archaeological Artifacts

The looting of archaeological sites became a significant problem after the Second World War. Archaeological sites had been exploited from the 18th century with varying degrees of emphasis on scientific recovery of artifacts. However, demand created by the postwar growth of the international art market provided an impetus to supply more archaeological artifacts for the market, often through looting of sites, just as advances in scientific methodologies expanded the amount of contextual knowledge that could be recovered about the past through controlled excavation. As the losses inflicted on our ability to reconstruct all facets of the past became better understood, legal mechanisms developed to deter the trade in undocumented archaeological artifacts and the looting of archaeological sites. These legal mechanisms crystallized around the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The 1970 UNESCO Convention fostered a series of national actions, including ratification and implementation of the convention through domestic legislation. In the early 2000s, several market nations ratified the 1970 convention, ushering in an era in which this convention has served as the basic international legal instrument that attempts to curtail the trade in illegally obtained antiquities. The study of the trade in looted antiquities is prevalent in several disciplines, in addition to legal studies. Ethnographers and anthropologists study the mechanisms of the trade from the looting of the object from the ground to the desires of museums and private collectors to acquire such objects. Criminologists study the motivations of the criminal actors and the best methods for deterring criminal activity. Ethicists explore the ethical dimensions of acquisitions of undocumented archaeological artifacts, particularly by public institutions, and the morality of restitution. Economists theorize about ways that archaeological heritage can become an economically sustainable resource for local populations, thereby reducing the motivation to loot sites. Finally, the international restitution of looted archaeological objects has become a central issue in cultural diplomacy among nations and in relationships among the world’s museums and educational institutions. The contemporary trade in undocumented artifacts is not entirely divorced from the historical scourge brought about through armed conflict and military occupation. The looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad during the 2003 Gulf War, followed by the large-scale looting of sites throughout southern Iraq, the looting of sites in Syria and Egypt during the ongoing conflicts to obtain funds, and the dismemberment of Khmer temples in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period all attest to the pervasive nature of looting to supply archaeological artifacts for sale on the international art market.

scholarly journals Crime, Controversy and the Comments Section: Discussing archaeological looting, trafficking, and the illicit antiquities trade online

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Yates
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Take Back ◽  
Antiquities Trade ◽  
Sensitive Issues

In this article we will discuss the challenges involved in presenting the looting of archaeological sites and the illicit trade in cultural property to the interested public. We will contrast our experiences of building two popular illicit antiquities-focused blogs (Things You Can’t Take Back and Anonymous Swiss Collector) with the process of developing an informative academic website on the same topic (Trafficking Culture). We will discuss our motivations for starting these blogs, our struggles with the tone of the popular discourse on this topic, and our inability to escape our own emotions; why we have moved away from illicit antiquities blogging in the past year and why we are coming back. Finally, having learned from our mistakes, we will make recommendations to others wishing to engage with the public about sensitive issues via social media.

scholarly journals Reality and Practicality: Challenges to Effective Cultural Property Policy on the Ground in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Yates
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Source Countries

Although on-the-ground preservation and policing is a majorcomponent of our international efforts to prevent the looting and traffickingof antiquities, the expectation placed on source countries may be beyond theircapacity. This dependence on developing world infrastructure and policing maychallenge our ability to effectively regulate this illicit trade. Using case studiesgenerated from fieldwork in Belize and Bolivia, this paper discusses a numberof these challenges to effective policy and offers some suggestions for futureregulatory development.

scholarly journals SyPEAH: The WebAPP System for Protection and Education to Archaeological Heritage in the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 246
Author(s):  
Irma Della Giovampaola
Keyword(s):  
Central Area ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Dynamic Monitoring ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
Preventive Conservation ◽  
Innovative Technologies ◽  
Combined Use ◽  
Degradation Monitoring ◽  
Deterioration Process

Archaeological sites are affected by changes due to a natural deterioration process over time. If not prevented, this may compromise the functionality of the cultural property, and in turn become pathological and result in degradation. Monitoring through innovative technologies paves the way towards an effective planned maintenance activity and therefore preventive conservation. The monitoring project of the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo was inspired by the desire to build a system of protection and conservation at the service of sustainable exploitation. Established by Ministerial Decree 12 January 2017 in art. 3, the park is an independent cultural site of the Ministry of Culture. It includes the central area of Rome—the Roman Forum, the Palatine, the Colosseum and the Domus Aurea—and has an extension of about 77 hectares, of which about 32 are buildings. With these objectives, the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo has launched a static and dynamic monitoring project consisting of six fundamental levels of activities. The project involves the creation of a multi-parameter system of permanent control of the entire archaeological area, with the associated indicators of the level of risk, for which it is necessary the combined use of innovative technologies.

scholarly journals The Smuggling of Art, and the Art of Smuggling: Uncovering the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property and Antiques

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Fisman ◽  
Shang-Jin Wei
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Country ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Reporting Incentives ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Illicit Trafficking

We empirically analyze the illicit trade in cultural property and antiques, taking advantage of different reporting incentives between source and destination countries. We generate a measure of illicit trafficking in these goods by comparing imports recorded in United States' customs data and the (purportedly identical) trade recorded by customs authorities in exporting countries. This reporting gap is highly correlated with corruption levels of exporting countries. This correlation is stronger for artifact-rich countries. As a placebo test, we do not observe any such pattern for US imports of toys. We report similar results for four other Western country markets. (JEL F14, K42, Z11, Z13)

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