LibGuides: 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property: Background and Adoption

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Overview

The 1970 Convention was born out of growing global concern over the illicit cultural property trade — and, by extension, over irretrievable losses of cultural heritage. For instance, by 1954, UNESCO had already advanced the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict: a convention aimed at safeguarding cultural property during periods of war and occupation. Likewise, in 1960, the UNESCO General Conference passed Resolution 4.412, which granted the Director-General the authority to "prepare, in consultation with appropriate international organizations, and to submit to the General Conference at its twelfth session, a report on appropriate means of prohibiting the illicit export, import and sale of cultural property, including the possibility of preparing an international instrument on this subject."

The development of the Convention gained further traction in April 1964, when UNESCO — on the recommendation of several member states — assembled a Committee of Experts representing thirty states in response to the illicit cultural property trade. In November that same year, the UNESCO General Conference adopted the Recommendation on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Export, Import and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

Four years later, in 1968, UNESCO passed Resolution 3.334, which sanctioned the formation of a separate Special Committee of Governmental Experts (containing representatives from 61 states) to finalize a convention on the illicit cultural property trade. In April 1970, this Special Committee of Governmental Experts met in Paris to consider a draft convention prepared by the UNESCO Secretariat, which included a comprehensive plan that would have required all participating countries to reject the import of any cultural property, broadly defined, unless it was accompanied by an export certificate from its country of origin. Consequently, few "holding states" (i.e., nations with extensive public and private collections of art and artifacts) endorsed the draft; other key countries in the commercial cultural object trade (such as Switzerland and the United Kingdom) did not attend the Special Committee meeting altogether.

Eventually, amendments to the draft convention — aimed at balancing the interests of both art-importing and exporting nations — were proposed and passed. Overarchingly, these amendments sought to redirect the draft convention's focus on 1) acquisition guidelines for future transactions, in addition to 2) ways to curb market-driven looting without impinging on other countries' export controls. In the end, this facilitated the official adoption of the Convention at the 16th Session of the UNESCO General Conference in 1970.