Parzinger on the Cultural Property Protection Act: Illegal trade no longer a trivial offence
Press release from 08/02/2017
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation sees positive developments following the amendment to the Cultural Property Protection Act, which came into force a year ago. The new law was the first to ban the import of antiquities without an official export licence from the country of origin, something that international experts had been calling for for decades.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation: "The illegal trade in cultural artefacts is a global problem. We must work to ensure that the value of cultural property and its social and cultural role are recognised. Especially in times of crisis, its value therefore goes beyond a purely material one: cultural assets provide cultural identity and stability, enable orientation and awaken hope for social reconciliation."
According to Parzinger, the law is a clear further development of the legal framework for the protection of cultural property, as it is the overdue implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention and has created a legal framework for action against the illegal trade in cultural property in Germany by replacing the impractical listing procedure of the 2007 law. For the first time, the amendment now also provides for the possibility of criminal prosecution - illegal trade is no longer a trivial offence. "Our partners abroad repeatedly confirm that the amendment of the law was an important milestone on the way to harmonised standards for the protection of cultural property at EU level."
Markus Hilgert, Director of the Museum of the Ancient Near East and coordinator of the joint project "ILLICID", which tests methods of dark field research in the field of trade in cultural property, sees increased due diligence obligations for the trade, which now has the obligation to demonstrate that the cultural property offered for sale has been imported lawfully: "Our observations currently include the fact that archaeological objects from the eastern Mediterranean are being offered for sale in Germany on a considerable scale, including numerous objects from Iraq and Syria. However, both countries do not provide for the export of archaeological cultural property and the import of and trade in them within the EU is significantly restricted by directly applicable EU law. It is therefore worrying that hardly any meaningful information on provenance is provided for the vast majority of these artefacts. This finding is also difficult to reconcile with the provisions of the new Cultural Property Protection Act."
Hilgert adds: "ILLICID shows how important it is for experts to systematically observe and document the trade in cultural artefacts. This is the only way to create a reliable factual basis that may also provide information about illegal activities in this area or the potential for terrorist financing."