In a world scarred by recurrent violence against people and their heritage, the nine-year prison sentence handed down to Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, who helped to destroy shrines in Timbuktu, marks a new and welcome recognition that deliberate cultural destruction is a war crime. It is the first international trial to focus exclusively on crimes against…
Selling or moving a work out of Germany has just become a lot more difficult. The German parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday (23.06.2016) passed a new law that will closely regulate the international sale of art and artifacts deemed to be of significant cultural value. As for ancient archeological treasures, a permit will be required…
A controversial new law protecting cultural artifacts was passed in Germany in August. Assyriologist Markus Hilgert tells DW it is a vital update for the preservation of archaeological treasures from the Middle East. read more
Sandra Cobden has been a New York-based litigator for more than twenty years. For the last seven years, she has worked at Christie’s managing their disputes, legislative interests, and governments affairs. She is also an adjunct law professor at Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, where she teaches art law. read the whole interview and then (probably…
AUDITOR-general Odysseas Michaelides will hand over to the attorney-general information collected by his office about irregularities at the Paphos Antiquities Department. Last week, the audit service carried out two surprise inspections in Paphos, following reports about inadequate storage procedures for antiquities found during the course of excavations, as well as possible wrongdoing in relation to…
Security guards called police after they saw the 31-year-old tourist use his foot to dig out a chip of marble from the floor of Pompeii’s House of the Small Fountain dating from the first century AD. In May last year, the United States returned to Italy three frescoes taken from Pompeii nearly 60 years ago…
Cyprus plans to organise a series of activities that would kick-start a new criminal law convention to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property, during its Presidency of the Council of Europe, between November 2016 to May 2017, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides has said. read more
British auction houses have been warned against selling looted Latin American artefacts after a 500 year-old indigenous sculpture, stolen from Colombia, was discovered and returned to its home. read more …well: maybe sell no looted cultural heritage at all?!
Italy’s art historians, firefighters and special police scamble to rescue quake-stricken Amatrice’s heritage. The central Italian town of Amatrice is still a mess of toppled buildings and rubble. Buried there are centuries worth of art and artifacts. read more
In the Middle East and North Africa, terrorist organizations target ancient relics and sites for loot to finance their operations. In Latin America, drug cartels and other organized crime groups use the antiquities black market to launder money. Across the West, looted artifacts appear in private collections and museums. In the past year, a coordinated…
EAA-Community on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 