The 1970 UNESCO and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions on Stolen or Illegally Transferred Cultural Property

The 1970 UNESCO and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions on Stolen or Illegally Transferred Cultural Property

Author:

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-02-29

Total Pages: 945

ISBN-13: 0192662341

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The illicit traffic in cultural objects is a grave concern to the general public and international community. The resulting cultural damage fuels debates on how best to regulate the trade in cultural objects and inform legal responses at all levels for the protection of movable cultural heritage. Treaties concerning the treatment of cultural objects during peacetime and war represent some of the earliest multilateral initiatives on cultural heritage in the modern era. They also remain some of the most deeply contested, representing shifting fault lines within the international community. Authored by leading scholars and practitioners from around the world, this Commentary is the first to cover the two leading multilateral treaties on movable cultural heritage in one volume: the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property adopted by UNESCO in 1970 and the Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects adopted by UNIDROIT in 1995. This Commentary is designed to be the authoritative text for academics, lawyers, policymakers, and diplomats on the protection and regulation of cultural objects. Encompassing both public and private international law rules on the trade in cultural objects, it provides a detailed historical and thematic overview. Drawing on the travaux preparatoires and intergovernmental and state practice over the last half century, the Commentary provides an article-by-article analysis of the interpretation and application of these treaties. The texts 1970 UNESCO and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions are examined in the working context of other culture conventions including the World Heritage Convention and the Intangible Heritage Convention, as well as related fields of international law, such as international humanitarian law, international criminal law, human rights law, and international economic law. The volume also offers a critical examination of current trends and future directions which are informing the field.


Cultural Property and Contested Ownership

Cultural Property and Contested Ownership

Author: Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-06-10

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1317281837

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Against the backdrop of international conventions and their implementation, Cultural Property and Contested Ownership explores how highly-valued cultural goods are traded and negotiated among diverging parties and their interests. Cultural artefacts, such as those kept and trafficked between art dealers, private collectors and museums, have become increasingly localized in a ‘Bermuda triangle’ of colonialism, looting and the black market, with their re-emergence resulting in disputes of ownership and claims for return. This interdisciplinary volume provides the first book-length investigation of the changing behaviours resulting from the effect of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The collection considers the impact of the Convention on the way antiquity dealers, museums and auction houses, as well as nation states and local communities, address issues of provenance, contested ownership, and the trafficking of cultural property. The book contains a range of contributions from anthropologists, lawyers, historians and archaeologists. Individual cases are examined from a bottom-up perspective and assessed from the viewpoint of international law in the Epilogue. Each section is contextualised by an introductory chapter from the editors.


Whose Culture?

Whose Culture?

Author: James Cuno

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-05-23

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1400833043

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The international controversy over who "owns" antiquities has pitted museums against archaeologists and source countries where ancient artifacts are found. In his book Who Owns Antiquity?, James Cuno argued that antiquities are the cultural property of humankind, not of the countries that lay exclusive claim to them. Now in Whose Culture?, Cuno assembles preeminent museum directors, curators, and scholars to explain for themselves what's at stake in this struggle--and why the museums' critics couldn't be more wrong. Source countries and archaeologists favor tough cultural property laws restricting the export of antiquities, have fought for the return of artifacts from museums worldwide, and claim the acquisition of undocumented antiquities encourages looting of archaeological sites. In Whose Culture?, leading figures from universities and museums in the United States and Britain argue that modern nation-states have at best a dubious connection with the ancient cultures they claim to represent, and that archaeology has been misused by nationalistic identity politics. They explain why exhibition is essential to responsible acquisitions, why our shared art heritage trumps nationalist agendas, why restrictive cultural property laws put antiquities at risk from unstable governments--and more. Defending the principles of art as the legacy of all humankind and museums as instruments of inquiry and tolerance, Whose Culture? brings reasoned argument to an issue that for too long has been distorted by politics and emotionalism. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Kwame Anthony Appiah, Sir John Boardman, Michael F. Brown, Derek Gillman, Neil MacGregor, John Henry Merryman, Philippe de Montebello, David I. Owen, and James C. Y. Watt.


International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects

International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects

Author: Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-07-13

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13: 0521841429

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While the question of the return of cultural objects is by no means a new one, it has become the subject of increasingly intense debate in recent years. This important book explores the removal and the return of cultural objects from occupied communities during the last two centuries and analyses the concurrent evolution of international cultural heritage law. The book focuses on the significant influence exerted by British, U.S. and Australian governments and museums on international law and museum policy in response to restitution claims. It shows that these claims, far from heralding the long-feared dissolution of museums and their collections, provide museums with a vital, new role in the process of self-determination and cultural identity. Compelling and thought-provoking throughout, this book is essential reading for archaeologists, international lawyers and all those involved in cultural resource management.


The Oxford Handbook of International Cultural Heritage Law

The Oxford Handbook of International Cultural Heritage Law

Author: Francesco Francioni

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 1088

ISBN-13: 9780191892295

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This handbook provides a cutting edge study of international cultural heritage law, taking stock of the recent developments, core concepts, andcurrent challenges. --Résumé de l'éditeur.


The Settlement of International Cultural Heritage Disputes

The Settlement of International Cultural Heritage Disputes

Author: Alessandro Chechi

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0198703996

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The past forty years have seen a wide proliferation of an extensive range of disputes under international law concerning cultural heritage. These disputes can concern a disparate variety of issues. A substantial number of have concerned the restitution of stolen and illegally exported art objects. Another set of controversies has involved the protection of immovable cultural heritage. Unlike other fields of international law, international cultural heritage law does not have an ad hoc mechanism of dispute settlement. As a result, controversies are to be settled through negotiation or, if this fails, through existing dispute resolution means, which include arbitration and litigation before domestic courts or international tribunals. This ad hoc fashion of dealing with disputes is not without consequences. The most serious problem is that the same or similar cases may be settled in different ways, thereby bringing about an incoherent and fragmentary enforcement of the law. This book offers a comprehensive and innovative analysis of the settlement of cultural heritage disputes. It addresses the means the potential fragmentation can be resolved by providing a two-fold analysis. First, it provides a detailed analysis of the existing legal framework and the available means of judicial and non-judicial dispute settlement. Second, it explores the feasibility of two solutions for overcoming the lack of a specialized forum. The first potential solution is the establishment of a new international court. The second concerns existing judicial and extra-judicial fora and means of increasing interaction between them by the practice of 'cross-fertilization'. The book focuses on the substance of such interaction, and identifies a number of culturally-sensitive parameters which need to apply (the 'common rules of adjudication'). Ultimately the book argues that existing judicial and non-judicial fora should adopt a cross-fertilizing perspective to use and disseminate jurisprudence containing these common rules of adjudication, to enhance the effectiveness and coherence of their decision-making processes. Finally, it sets out how such an approach would be conducive to the development of a wider body of international cultural heritage law.


Crime in the Art and Antiquities World

Crime in the Art and Antiquities World

Author: Stefano Manacorda

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-02-26

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1441979468

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The theft, trafficking, and falsification of cultural property and cultural heritage objects are crimes of a particularly complex nature, which often have international ramifications and significant economic consequences. Organized criminal groups of various types and origins are involved in these illegal acts. The book Crime in the Art and Antiquities World has contributions both from researchers specializing in the illegal trafficking of art, and representatives of international institutions involved with prevention and detection of cultural property-related crimes, such as Interpol and UNESCO. This work is a unique and useful reference for scholars and private and public bodies alike. This innovative volume also includes an Appendix of the existing legal texts, i.e. international treaties, conventions, and resolutions, which have not previously been available in a single volume. As anyone who has undertaken research or study relating to the protection of cultural heritage discovers one of the frustrations encountered is the absence of ready access to the multi- various international instruments which exist in the field. Since the end of the Second World War these instruments have proliferated, first in response to increasing recognition of the need for concerted multinational action to give better protection to cultural property during armed conflict as well as ensuring the repatriation of cultural property looted during such conflict. Thus the international community agreed in 1954 upon a Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. That Convention, typically referred to as the Hague Convention of 1954, is now to be found reproduced in the Appendix to this book (Appendix I) together with 25 other important and diverse documents that we believe represent a core of the essential international sources of reference in this subject area. In presenting these documents in one place we hope that readers will now experience less frustration while having the benefit of supplementing their understanding and interpretation of the various instruments by referring to individual chapters in the book dealing with a particular issue or topic. For example, Chapter 9 by Mathew Bogdanos provides some specific and at times rather depressing descriptions of the application in the field of the Hague Convention 1954, and its Protocols (Appendices II and III), to the armed conflict in Iraq. Reference may also be had to the resolution of the UN Security Council in May 2003 (Appendix VI) urging Member States to take appropriate steps to facilitate the safe return of looted Iraqi cultural property taken from the Iraq National Museum, the National Library and other locations in Iraq. Despite such pleas the international antiquities market seems to have continued to trade such looted property in a largely unfettered manner, as demonstrated by Neil Brodie in Chapter 7. Fittingly, as referred to in the Preface to this book, the last document contained in the Appendix (Appendix 26) is the “Charter of Courmayeur”, formulated at a ground breaking international workshop on the protection of cultural property conducted by the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council (ISPAC) to the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program in Courmayeur, Italy, in June 1992. The Charter makes mention of many of the instruments contained in the Appendix while also foreshadowing many of the developments which have taken place in the ensuing two decades designed to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property through international collaboration and action in the arena of crime prevention and criminal justice.