dell'Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica

AIAC NEWS n. 19/20 (Dicembre 1998/Marzo 1999)

ART, ANTIQUITY, AND THE LAW: PRESERVING OUR GLOBAL CULTURAL HERITAGE - 29 OCTOBER - 1 NOVEMBER 1998

The three day international conference "Art, Antiquity, and the Law: Preserving Our Global Cultural Heritage", held at Rutgers University, 30 October-1 November 1998, brought together fifty-one speakers and panelists from around the world with over three hundred registered participants to address a major international crisis - namely, the worldwide looting and destruction of monuments, sites, artifacts, and works of art that make up our global cultural heritage. The conference was presented under the sponsorship of Global Programs and the Department of Art History, and chaired by Prof. Archer St. Clair Harvey of the Department of Art History.

The format of the conference, which combined area case studies with panels devoted to discussion of specific cultural property issues, was designed to encourage cross-disciplinary discussion and debate among experts in cultural heritage issues and cultural property law. Archaeologists, art historians, conservators, museum directors, collectors, and dealers joined cultural heritage attorneys, representatives of national and international agencies, and law enforcement personnel in an attempt to come to terms with the international crisis of looting and destruction and to devise preventive measures. A primary aim of the conference was to bring to this discussion voices from the countries and regions that were the focus of the conference. To this end, cultural heritage experts from China, Africa, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and North and South America participated as speakers and panelists.

Speakers and panelists examined the looting and theft of cultural material from archaeological sites, public monuments and religious edifices, as well as the destruction of cultural patrimony as a result of armed conflict in Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. These issues are indeed timely. The spectacular rise in the international art market over the past twenty years has led to a booming international trade in stolen, smuggled and looted art, worth 4.5 to 6 billion dollars per year. According to a report prepared by the Getty Trust, the Czech Republic is said to be losing about 10% of its national patrimony every year to thieves and smugglers.

In China 40,000 tombs were plundered in 1989 and 1990. Italy recorded 253,000 art thefts from 1970-1990. British losses are estimated at 1.5 billion dollars a year. In the United States, traditionally seen as a primary market for cultural property from other countries, widespread looting of archaeological sites and monuments in response to a rapidly growing international market for Native American art, as well as spectacular thefts such as that of a Vermeer, two Rembrandts, and other treasures from the Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston have brought the issues of who owns the past and who has the right or responsibility to protect it dramatically to the fore on our own soil. Despite growing national awareness and international concern, however, the problems are increasing. Dislocations of war in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union have led not only to destruction of cultural patrimony but to dramatic increases in theft and illegal exports. The increase in the illicit movement of cultural property has proven to be one of the difficult issues for the European Community, as modern transportation and the decrease in border controls have facilitated illegal traffic.

Central America provides one of the best documented cases of the destruction and continued imperilment of cultural heritage. Fueled by the growing interest in Indian "artifacts," the threat to Native American sites by looters on North American soil has never been greater.

Systematic theft, desecration, and destruction of historic sites have increased dramatically in the past fifteen years, while rapid and unrestricted development threatens do destroy any remaining vestiges of our past that remain undiscovered beneath our soil.

A major goal of the conference was to examine steps that are being taken to address these issues, specifically to regulate trade and protect the material remains of our global cultural heritage, and to propose new and alternative solutions for ending the growing tide of destruction, illegal traffic and theft. While in excess of 140 countries have domestic legislation restricting in some way the export of cultural property, the failure of such efforts to stem the illegal trade and large scale pillaging and destruction of cultural treasures, especially within developing nations, has led to a recognition of the importance of international controls. Analysis of the laws and conventions as they exist, such as the 1954 Hague and 1970 UNESCO Conventions, and of proposed international treaties, notably the UNIDROIT Convention and other legal measures that aim to control the movement of cultural property. These international conventions were the focus of panel discussions, especially as they relate, or fail to relate, to national preservation strategies and those of museums and collectors, with which they frequently conflict. The changing role of museums, especially as related to antiquities, was the focus of a panel dedicated to finding ways for museums to maintain their roles in preservation and education while discouraging the illegal traffic in unprovenanced antiquities. The development of documentation systems and registries that will allow the tracking and identification of stolen art, and of other security plans designed to protect our own and other countries' cultural and artistic heritage were considered as they contribute to the goal of preserving cultural heritage. Strategies for the protection of sites and monuments were discussed by both legal experts and conservators in cross-disciplinary panels, as were the ethical issues that museums, auction houses, collectors, and conservators must address if these issues are to be resolved.

At the conference, two speakers, Dr. Clemency Coggins and Dr. John Henry Merryman, were honored for their contributions to the cultural heritage field with Rutgers University/Global Programs Awards for Outstanding Contributions to International Relations. The following resolutions were adopted by participants at the conference.

Further information on the conference is available on the conference web site: www.rci.rutgers.edu/~allconf

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The Rutgers Resolutions

The following resolutions were adopted by the participants at the international conference "Art, Antiquity and the Law: Preserving our Global Cultural Heritage," sponsored by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on October 30 * November 1, 1998.

1. Believing that the ethical and legal acquisition of ancient art and artifacts is in the best interests of institutional and private collectors in their role as stewards of the cultural heritage, and benefits both public education and international cooperation, we urge that:
   *Museums, dealers, and collectors should adopt and adhere to the principles of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Code of Ethics, implementing acquisition procedures to the highest feasible standards of due diligence, in order to sustain a licit exchange and trade in such objects.
   
2. Convinced that the looting of antiquities deprives them of their historical context and causes the destruction of archaeological sites, we encourage nations rich in antiquities:
   *Not to lend works of art and antiquities to museums that continue to acquire looted materials illegally removed from those nations.
   
3. Convinced that the international exchange of cultural property is of great importance for stimulating understanding and respect for foreign cultures and for the education of future generations, we encourage the governments of all nations:
   *To promote long-term loans of cultural objects to foreign museums and other institutions, in compliance with international standards.
   *To amend national laws, which limit the duration of such loans too restrictively, in order to provide for a minimum two-year loan period for exhibition purposes.
   
4. Recognizing the present crisis atmosphere, we express grave concern for the safety of the world's cultural heritage in Iraq. The continuing international sanctions, imposed by the United Nations following the Persian Gulf conflict of 1991, have brought archaeological research, conservation, and museum activities in Iraq to a standstill. The Department of Antiquities is unable to retain professional staff and guards to protect even the most famous Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Islamic sites from systematic, large-scale looting. The training of new Iraqi archaeologists is hindered by the embargo on current publications and by their isolation from on-going international research. In consequence, there is a loss of irreplaceable information on human history and a flood of smuggled Mesopotamian artifacts into the international antiquities market. The result will be a long-term adverse effect on the management of cultural heritage in Iraq. We therefore urge the United Nations Security Council:
   *To exclude the cultural and educational spheres from the embargo.
   *To allow the supply to Iraq of materials and publications related to cultural activities.
   *To allow the resumption of foreign scholarly participation in cultural heritage-related activities in Iraq.
   
5. Aware that international cooperation is essential for the safe-guarding of the world's cultural patrimony, we urge all nations to become party to the relevant international agreements for the protection of the cultural heritage, including the:
   *Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, 1954.
   *UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, 1970.
   *UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, 1995.
   
   We further urge that:
   *General treaties, such as the Optional Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva Conventions and the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal, which criminalizes serious offences against the cultural heritage, should be observed and enforced.
   *All nations should take part in the Diplomatic Conference to be held in Amsterdam in March, 1999, to adopt new provisions to reinforce the effectiveness of the Hague Convention 1954.
   
6. Concerned that large numbers of cultural monuments have been destroyed during armed conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere, we express dismay that much of this destruction has been deliberate and systematic. The aim has been to weaken the identity and resolve of a supposed enemy, to undermine its historic claim to territory, and to rewrite history, reinforcing political claims while perverting the aims of objective scholarship. Such trends conscript culture and history as political and military tools, and represent a descent towards barbarism that all scholars have a duty to resist. Regretting the failure to implement the provisions of The Hague and Geneva Conventions protecting religious and cultural monuments in time of war, we consequently call for:
   *Support for the review of the conventions with the aim of strengthening them, effective enforcement of the provisions of the conventions, and the punishment of the guilty.
   *The establishment of a standing group of universities, cultural organizations, and professional associations to campaign for such actions.
   *The creation of a steering committee to organize, monitor, and publicize immediately necessary actions.

The conference participants present at the 11/1/98 session approved the above resolutions unanimously, with one abstention registered for each resolution (by the UNESCO representative per the requirements of her office) and two abstentions on resolution 4. The resolutions were proposed by Claire Lyons, Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer, Kurt Siehr, Malcolm Bell III, McGuire Gibson, John Malcolm Russell, Zainab Bahrani, Samuel Paley, John Yarwood, Muhamed Filipovic, and Jerrilyn Dodds.

Prof. Archer St.Clair Harvey

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