Paris, November 16 {No.2000-119}- UNESCO launched an International Code of Ethics for Dealers in Cultural Property at yesterday's 30th anniversary celebration of its Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970), at which strong protests were voiced against the complicity between unscrupulous dealers, collectors, and some art establishments.

The day long celebration - devoted to stock-taking and analyses of the Convention, the first global legal instrument for the protection of cultural heritage from theft and pillaging, and of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects ended with the launch of the Code of Ethics which was approved by UNESCO's supreme governing body, the General Conference, in November 1999. Dealers who adopt the Code undertake not to trade in objects which might be stolen, clandestinely excavated or illegally exported and to co-operate in their return.

"The Code was designed for those dealers who wish to make clear that they use their best efforts to avoid any association with illicit trade by checking carefully their sources of supply," declared UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture Mounir Bouchenaki during the launching ceremony. The Code "will be of use to dealers in any country who value their reputation for integrity and wish to spell it out for their customers to see," Mr Bouchenaki explained, adding: "It should encourage collectors to follow the ethics of the International Council of Museums and to do their best to ensure that they buy from sources who are meticulous in checking the origin of the goods they offer to their customers." The Code was published with the support of Italy's Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Artistico (artistic heritage police).

Mr Bouchenaki also invited states to contribute to a Fund created by UNESCO to support governments in their quest for the return of illegally traded artefacts. He said that, with the necessary resources, the Fund would enable UNESCO "to help states that are victims of illicit trafficking to set up public awareness programmes, reinforce their capacity to curb the trafficking at source by providing specialised training to police and customs officials, [and] compile national inventories to trace stolen or missing objects."

Earlier in the day, France's Culture Minister, Catherine Tasca, sent a message to UNESCO declaring that the French government has decided to ratify the private law UNIDROIT Convention "as soon as possible" saying that a bill to that effect will be submitted to Parliament in the coming weeks.

At the start of the event, Andrea Rascher, Head of the Legal Department of Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture, described the 1970 UNESCO Convention, ratified by ninety-one countries to date, as "the first universal convention regulating the international transfer of cultural objects. It postulates," he said, "the right of any state to see its cultural heritage recognised and protected. In a world in which more and more legal and illegal transactions on cultural objects take place, the protection of cultural heritage requires both public and private international law rules, as well as domestic civil and administrative law."

Colin Renfrew, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge (UK), highlighted the severe damage caused to archaeological sites by looting for commercial gain. "We can note some of the positive features of the UNESCO Convention and some of the positive effects which it has had," Lord Renfrew explained. He added: "In the first place it sets an aspiration that cultural property shall be adequately protected and outlines a framework. Moreover, bilateral agreements set up under its general umbrella, for instance those between the United States and Mali, or Peru, or Guatemala, have offered significant protection to antiquities and hence to sites within those lands."

"However," he continued, "we can note also that in other ways it has been less successful. The looting of archaeological sites is still widespread, and in some countries - such as those of West Africa, including Mali, and also many in Latin America, including Peru - the depredations are so severe as to undermine any hope of establishing a proper prehistory and history of these lands by archaeological means. Let us remember that the most important loss is the loss of information occasioned by the looting of sites. With the destruction of such sites the context of the finds is lost, even if the finds survive."

Speaking about solutions to the problem, Lord Renfrew declared: "The only hope I see for the world's cultural heritage is that we manage to stigmatise the sale of unprovenanced antiquities." He notably called on museums to cease exhibiting and issuing handsome catalogues on unprovenanced antiquities saying that such publicity only serves to increase the market value of looted artefacts and legitimise their trade. "There is a cycle of complicity," he said, "in the exhibition of unprovenanced antiquities in some of the world's great museums, sometimes followed by the gift or sale of some of these to the Museum, often accompanied by substantial tax deductions and by the public recognition and honouring of the collector by the institution."

Jean-Pierre Jouanny of INTERPOL spoke of his organisation's longstanding involvement in the fight against trafficking and of recent endeavours, including the use of the new communication technologies, to disseminate information about stolen objects. He notably pointed out that "the considerable modernisation of transportation and communication, more efficient and accessible [than before], has favoured the international development of criminal activity and efficient instruments for co-operation are needed." By way of example, Mr Jouanny said that close to 6,000 art thefts were reported in France in 1999, more than 2,000 each in Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy.

General Roberto Conforti, of Italy's Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Artistico, stressed the need for international co-operation in countering well-organised traffickers. He pointed to the "interest of organised crime in the art market which represents millions of dollars. Where there is money, there is crime," he declared arguing that "the abolition of frontiers [in Europe] has favoured illicit trade. [...] We depend on the concept of co-operation, it is the only way to deal with the globalisation of this phenomenon."

As part of the celebration the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Artistico exhibited of some thirty looted Etruscan archaeological objects it recently recovered. Reproductions of repossessed stolen paintings were also displayed. In a similar effort to raise awareness of the problem, UNESCO is publishing postcards of stolen cultural objects as part of an information kit. The Organization hopes that these postcards, the first in a series, will help locate and restitute these objects.

Manus Brinkman, Secretary General of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), talked of his organisation's initiatives to fight trafficking, through the publication of a Red List of stolen objects and by protesting against the exhibition and sale of stolen objects by well-known museums and dealers. He also argued the need for legal training and said that countries must be made aware of the need to translate important legislation because action could often not be taken because of lack of knowledge of existing legal provisions that could be used to stop sales or obtain the restitution of looted properties.

Mr Brinkmann concluded: "Art theft is very serious, seen from the global perspective, where whole societies are robbed of their cultural identity, it is especially serious for cultures without a rich written cultural history."

The celebration was held in the presence of the Chairperson of UNESCO's Executive Board, Sonia Mendieta de Badaroux, and representatives of Member States and international organisations involved in the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property.

For more information: http://www.unesco.org/bpi/convention1970/

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