Part II Crimes, 14 Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Artefacts

Subject(s):

Economic, social, and cultural rights — Cultural property / heritage

The trafficking of works of art and other movable cultural artefacts is growing in incidence but the response has been limited Cultural artefacts of all kinds—paintings, statuary, pottery, books—are looted or stolen in producer/source states only to find themselves ‘lawfully’ for sale on the antiques or art market in collector states. This chapter sets out the nature of the illicit traffic in cultural artefacts, before examining the most significant international instruments which have been adopted in the effort to control if not to suppress this traffic, with a particular focus on measures with a specific criminal content, including the most recent development, the Council of Europe’s Nicosia Convention.