Author: Merryman, John Henry and Elsen, Albert E.

Publication Year: 1981

Media Type: Report

Summary:

The authors examine a variety of significantly different situations of stolen and smuggled cultural objects which can be acquired by collectors and museums. Each case examined, in their opinion, calls for quite different legal treatment. They examine principal types of cases, identify the interests of art exporting and importing nations, and suggest a method of distinguishing those cases that call for action by the international community from those that are primarily of domestic concern to the exporting nation alone.

Abstract:

The authors examine a variety of significantly different situations of stolen and smuggled cultural objects which can be acquired by collectors and museums. Each case examined, in their opinion, calls for quite different legal treatment. They examine principal types of cases, identify the interests of art exporting and importing nations, and suggest a method of distinguishing those cases that call for action by the international community from those that are primarily of domestic concern to the exporting nation alone.

Hot art is a shorthand term for stolen and smuggled cultural objects of the kind that collectors and museums acquire. The term hot art, cultural property and stolen and smuggled art, when used in this context, actually serve as catch-all terms for a variety of significantly different situations calling, in our opinion, for quite different legal treatment. We examine the principal types of cases, identify the interests of art exporting and importing nations, and suggest a method of distinguishing those cases that call for action by the international community from those that are primarily of domestic concern to the exporting nation alone.

We examine the relevant law and practice of the (which are, by international standards, unusually sensitive to the interests of art exporting nations) and assess its record according to our interest analysis. Finally, we suggest the elements of an interest-sensitive and enforceable international policy toward art smuggling and theft, and consider the adequacy of proposed legislation implementing the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property as a framework for and international action.

CONTENTS
The problem.
Interests of Exporting Nations.
The interest analysis.
Practice.
Implementation in the United States.
Conclusion.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Cultural Planning