The Return of Cultural Artifacts to Countries of Origin

By: Jessica Odor

The culture of a country is an important factor to the country. It tells the country of their history, where they came from as the country. There are many things that makes the culture of a country hard to keep. Artifacts get old and become hard to preserve. Stories, songs, and poems become forgotten and told differently as their passed down from generation to generation.

Other factors that make it hard to keep artifacts are people stealing them due to greed, war and political factors. The UN tries to preserve the artifacts in a given country. When people won wars, they thought that they had the right to take the artifacts, but now this is an illegal process.

Background:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines cultural property as “property which, on religious or secular grounds, is specifically designated by each State as being of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science.” This definition means that cultural artifacts mean any object that represents a culture’s past, and this should be preserved so that future generations may learn from it.

Many artifacts are traded, stolen, bought and destroyed without even thinking of the country’s culture. Many archeological digs in the past never followed by the strict guidelines, unlike the digs today. Many people still think that the artifacts lose their significance when removed from their original places.

UN action

UN was originally concerned with keeping artifacts from being sold on the black market. Lately the stealing of these artifacts have increased greatly. If these artifacts that are stolen are found, it is hard to find where the original site it came from was.

UNESCO is the main body in preserving cultural artifact. In 1970, the organization drafted the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The convention set out to define cultural objects and call for cooperation among states parties regarding the protection and transfer of cultural artifacts. According to Article 4, cultural property refers to any object created by the nationals of a particular country or found in the territory of the country. The convention also requires states parties to create national bodies to oversee the protection of cultural heritage and to establish guidelines for transferring these pieces across borders.

Importantly, the convention also requires states parties to seize illegally traded cultural goods and return them to their countries of origin. To date, 88 countries have ratified the treaty. But of the major art market nations – those that have prominent museums or large private collections – only France and the United States have joined.

The Member States of UNESCO also decided to create a body that could oversee the return of cultural artifacts and uphold the provisions of the 1970 convention. In 1980, the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation met for the first time. The committee is charged with negotiating bilateral agreements between nations regarding the return of cultural artifacts, reinforcing international guidelines for cultural protection and preservation, and conducting educational campaigns to raise awareness about the issue. Member States to the committee may also request an inquiry into the return of a cultural artifact, but only after bilateral negotiations have broken down.

Current Situation

At the committee’s March 2003 session, several questions were considered. First, the committee recognized the United States for establishing bilateral agreements with other countries in order to ensure that cultural property in not imported from these nations without meeting specific guidelines. In addition, the committee asserted the importance of modern computer technologies to track cultural objects around the world. It suggested a broader use of an “Object-ID” tag system, where articles could be catalogued so that if stolen, they could later be identified. Similarly, the committee requested that UNESCO establish a website to keep track of all national laws regarding cultural artifacts in addition to the import/export licenses for these objects.

The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects essentially removes the time limitations of UNESCO’s 1970 convention. Here, nations are required, in all cases, to return cultural artifacts to their countries of origin if those items were once stolen or removed illegally. But the convention also states that the nations currently in possession of the artifacts should be fairly compensated for returning the objects, assuming the government had no knowledge that the objects were acquired illegally.

Study Questions

1. Has your nation’s cultural heritage been the target of looting or destruction? If so, to what extent?

2. Does your nation house major art museums or collections that possess cultural artifacts? How does this affect your position on the topic?

3. Has your nation ratified either the 1970 UNESCO convention or the 1995 UNIDROIT convention regarding cultural artifacts?

4. According to your nation, what measures should be taken to prevent the illegal looting and trading of cultural artifacts worldwide?

5. According to your nation, how should questions of ownership be decided between nations that both claim the right to house and display the same cultural artifact(s)?

Resources

“Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,” UNESCO, 14 November 1970, www.unesco.org/culture/laws/1970/html_eng/page2.shtml.

“Sheet 14: The Illicit Trade in Cultural Property,” UNESCO, www.unesco.ca/english/CultureofPeace/PeaceKit/sheet14.htm

“Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,” UNESCO, 23 November 1972,

http://whc.unesco.org/nwhc/pages/doc/mainf3.htm.

“Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.”

“Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation,” UNESCO, http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php@URL_ID=2634&URL_DO=DO_TOPI C&URL_SECTION=201.html.

“Secretariat Report,” UNESCO, Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation, 25-28 March 2003, www.unesco.org/culture/legalprotection/committee/html_eng/secreport12.pdf.

“UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects,” UNIDROIT, 24 June 1995, www.unidroit.org/english/conventions/c-cult.htm.