Treaty on antiquities hinders access for museums, says past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors
James Cuno, a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, has spent years investigating implications of a United Nations treaty: the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. It prohibits museums and other research centers from acquiring objects unearthed after 1970 without permission from the country of origin. Such permission is seldom granted, Cuno notes in his new book, Who Owns Antiquity? Last month, senior editor Janet Raloff spoke about the treaty with Cuno at The Art Institute of Chicago, where he is the director.
[QUESTION] What was the effect of the UNESCO 1970 treaty on looting of archaeological sites?
[ANSWER] It hasn’t stopped looting. In fact, from what we hear, looting is increasing.
Looting is not a leisure pastime. People don’t decide to become a looter rather than being a lawyer. They are desperate people doing desperate things. In situations of a failed economy, a failed government, the absence of civil society, internecine warfare, sectarian violence, drought — whatever — conditions emerge that can create pressures for looting. Simply criminalizing the illegal acquisition of goods won’t stop looting. It hasn’t stopped the trade in drugs or trade in stolen materials of any kind.
[QUESTION] How has the treaty affected researchers, especially their ability to buy or accept the donation of ancient artifacts?
[ANSWER] UNESCO 1970 has encouraged the development of national protectionist property laws. Artifacts excavated after 1970 belong to the [nation] states in which they were found. And these nations have almost always enacted ownership or export laws that prohibit the legal sale or export of such objects. So if we know something was excavated after 1970, we cannot acquire it.
More often, you don’t know where an item is from or when it was unearthed. Even if it has documentation indicating it was found before 1970, you have to try and substantiate whether that provenance is accurate before you can consider acquiring it.
[QUESTION] So an important artifact with dubious provenance for sale on the open market, available for anyone else to buy, isn’t available to foreign researchers?
[ANSWER] Right. So fewer and fewer things are entering into the public domain.
These export constraints are creating black markets. And like water on a leaky roof, looted artifacts are finding the path of least resistance to a buyer somewhere. I’ve heard they’re going to the Arab Emirates and Asia. What I can tell you is that they’re not coming to museums in the United States and Europe [which adhere to UNESCO 1970]....
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[QUESTION] What was the effect of the UNESCO 1970 treaty on looting of archaeological sites?
[ANSWER] It hasn’t stopped looting. In fact, from what we hear, looting is increasing.
Looting is not a leisure pastime. People don’t decide to become a looter rather than being a lawyer. They are desperate people doing desperate things. In situations of a failed economy, a failed government, the absence of civil society, internecine warfare, sectarian violence, drought — whatever — conditions emerge that can create pressures for looting. Simply criminalizing the illegal acquisition of goods won’t stop looting. It hasn’t stopped the trade in drugs or trade in stolen materials of any kind.
[QUESTION] How has the treaty affected researchers, especially their ability to buy or accept the donation of ancient artifacts?
[ANSWER] UNESCO 1970 has encouraged the development of national protectionist property laws. Artifacts excavated after 1970 belong to the [nation] states in which they were found. And these nations have almost always enacted ownership or export laws that prohibit the legal sale or export of such objects. So if we know something was excavated after 1970, we cannot acquire it.
More often, you don’t know where an item is from or when it was unearthed. Even if it has documentation indicating it was found before 1970, you have to try and substantiate whether that provenance is accurate before you can consider acquiring it.
[QUESTION] So an important artifact with dubious provenance for sale on the open market, available for anyone else to buy, isn’t available to foreign researchers?
[ANSWER] Right. So fewer and fewer things are entering into the public domain.
These export constraints are creating black markets. And like water on a leaky roof, looted artifacts are finding the path of least resistance to a buyer somewhere. I’ve heard they’re going to the Arab Emirates and Asia. What I can tell you is that they’re not coming to museums in the United States and Europe [which adhere to UNESCO 1970]....