ATADA
131
NOTES
1. Yves-Bernard Debie, a Belgium-based lawyer
specializing in art and cultural property law, has been
working for years to establish a European equivalent
of ATADA that would advocate for European
dealers and collectors. He holds that this is a muchneeded
project not only due to the legislative and
jurisprudential inflation that increasingly restricts
commerce, but because of issues relating to private
and institutional ownership of artworks from non-
European civilizations.
2. For the definition of a “cultural good,” see UNESCO
1970 Convention, Article 1. For more information
about its practical application, see the article by Yves-
Bernard Debie in Tribal Art magazine no. 77 (Autumn
2015).
Other kinds of objects considered “cultural
goods” must be tracked on import with an
“Object ID” description and a photograph.
The regulations may require the importer to
make a sworn statement that the object was
legally exported from the source country. Unfortunately,
for most objects in circulation,
the importer may have no way of knowing if
that is true.
EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has
joined the chorus of politicians who claim
new regulations are needed because there is
a multibillion-euro illicit trade in antiquities
that “goes directly to the financing of ISIS
in Iraq and Syria but also toward attacks on
European soil.”
A report ordered by the Dutch National Police,
Central Investigation Unit, War Crimes
Unit, titled “Cultural Property, War Crimes,
and the Islamic State” dismisses these arguments,
stating:
These claims are largely not supported by available
government reports. Customs Authorities
have not reported growing influxes of illegal
cultural property over their borders. Law enforcement
agencies have not reported growing
arrests of criminal art dealers or seizures of
illegal cultural property from Syria and Iraq.
Policy papers and studies do not present evidence
that the illegal (online) art market flourishes
and is overwhelmed with Syrian or Iraqi
artefacts.
If these EU rules are implemented, they have
the potential to grow to restrict imports of
items less than 250 years old, as the regulations
state that the age limit may be changed.
As the Dutch National Police report says,
such legislation against antiquities seems
overbroad, like “using a sledgehammer to
crack a nut.”