Curbing the illicit trafficking of cultural property : focusing on countries of transition and the application of criminal justice

On Thursday 28 April 2016, the Permanent Missions of Jordan and Italy to the United Nations, together with UNESCO, INTERPOL, and UNODC, organized an expert meeting on the illicit trafficking of cultural property in transit countries. This meeting was organized within the partnership initiative “Protecting Cultural Heritage – an Imperative for Humanity: Acting together against the destruction and trafficking of cultural property by terrorist groups and organized crime”.

The meeting was chaired by the Ambassador H.E. Dina Kawar (Jordan) and Ambassador H.E. Sebastiano Cardi (Italy), with the participation, among others, of permanent representatives of Member States, representatives of UNESCO, INTERPOL, UNODC, WCO, the UN Sanctions Monitoring Team, as well as the Metropolitan Museum, the Antiquities Coalition and the Carabinieri.

UNESCO’s role in fighting against the illicit trafficking of cultural property was highlighted by a number of participants. Some referred to the recent initiative to create a High Level interagency Task Force for the protection of cultural heritage at UNESCO, while others commended the #UNITE4Heritage Campaign. Furthermore, the importance of global ratification and implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Conventionand the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention, two essential instruments for the return and restitution of cultural property, was emphasized. Additionally, participants advocated for the most efficient use of UNESCO Export Model Certificate.

The discussions focussed on the concerted efforts to prevent illicit trafficking, by strengthening international cooperation with respect to law enforcement and criminal prosecution.  In this context, participants underlined the importance for specialization and training of law enforcement authorities in investigations of illicitly trafficked cultural property as well as the efficient implementation of national and international laws. Participants also stressed the need to ensure proper border and customs control, and to share data in a timely manner.  Likewise, an appeal was made to make the best use of existing bilateral agreements and to continue efforts in raising awareness around the issue of illicit trafficking of cultural property and the links with the financing of terrorist and criminal groups.

A number of Member States shared their national practices in the legislation and policy domains such as existing and upcoming legislation initiatives, lessons learned; good practices and others.

This meeting is a follow up in a series of round tables organized by the Permanent Missions of Jordan and Italy, in collaboration with UNESCO, INTERPOL and UNODC, and will conclude by a High Level Meeting during the annual General Debate of the UN General Assembly next September 2016. 

Click here for more detailed information on the first meeting addressing the illicit trafficking of cultural property at the end of the market chain.

The third meeting on prevention of the destruction of  cultural heritage  and illicit trafficking of cultural property in countries of origin is scheduled to take place on 27 May 2016 at the UN Headquarters.

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Mapping How Terrorists Are Destroying The World’s Cultural Sites

The scale of the destruction over the last five years has been immense. But mapping these activities can help stop and predict the next attacks.

Photo: JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

CHARLIE SORREL 05.27.16 8:36 AM

How do you stop the deliberate destruction and looting of cultural sites by groups like ISIS? If military action can’t stop terrorist groups from killing people and occupying territory, then how can it hope to protect an individual shrine? And should we even be bothering with protecting property when people are being killed or persecuted?

The Antiques Coalition thinks so, and its campaign starts the way most good campaigns start—with a good map.

ISIS and other groups have not only destroyed entire temples at Palmyra in Syria and Nimrud in Iraq, they have also destroyed Judeo-Christian and Sunni Muslim religious sites, says the Antiquities Coalition. The groups also steal artifacts and sell them to raise funding.

Mallawi Museum. Minya, Egypt. See the interactive site here: The Antiquities Coalition

To combat this, the Antiquities Coalition has convened activists under the Culture Under Threat Task Force. They have two strategies. One is to push the U.S. military to target strikes that protect cultural sites, as well as adding these sites to “no strike lists.” The other is to limit the international sale of stolen artifacts, which will both remove a source of funding, and discourage further theft. This year, the U.S. enacted The Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act. This, says Deborah Lehr, chairman of the Antiquities Coalition, will “restrict imports of Syrian antiquities so that the United States market will no longer be a destination of choice for conflict antiquities.”

But how important is it to protect these sites?

“Cultural crimes represent much more than the ‘destruction of property,’” Deborah Lehr, chairman of the Antiquities Coalition, says. “The destruction and looting of heritage sites are recognized as war crimes. The looting of heritage sites represents a significant source of financing for terrorist activities.”

But these are just the short-term effects of the destruction. More important is the permanent loss of a shared history. When these sites are destroyed, the future culture of a society is also destroyed. Imagine if the 9/11 attacks had also hit the Statue of Liberty.

“The destruction of cultural sites, “says Lehr, “is used to intimidate the diverse populations of the Middle East, especially religious and ethnic minorities, and historically have been both a precursor and component of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

To help keep track of the various attacks and visualize just how widespread they are, the Antiquities Coalition has built an interactive map, called the Incident Analyzer. This map charts every reported incident, and can be filtered by date, by the group suspected to be responsible, as well as the kind of incident, or map feature (museums, heritage sites, terror-controlled areas, and so on).

Mausoleum of Mohammad Bin Ali. Palmyra, Syria. See the interactive site here:The Antiquities Coalition

Perhaps the most important use of the map so far was by Lehr herself, who included it in her testimony on terrorist financing before the House of Representatives. Before, they would have only been able to display five years of destruction compiled on a static map. The timeline and graphing tool allowed them to discover and show the patterns of destructive activity across the region.

The data for the map comes from various sources, including news sources, social media, academic groups, and people in affected countries. It is put together using technology from Hexagon Geospatial. But they have to be careful not to create a map that helps terrorists or looters access sites they didn’t know about before.

Umayyad Mosque. Aleppo, Syria. See the interactive site here: The Antiquities Coalition

The map has thrown up a few surprises. For instance, it was assumed that almost no cultural sites were attacked on Fridays, a Muslim holy day, but this turned out to be far from true. And the map also acts as a crude tool to predict the locations and times of future attacks. “You can see past trends to anticipate future outcomes via time sliders, showing events/incidents and the movement associated with those across a city or a region,” says Mladen Stojic, president of Hexagon Geospatial.

The world’s collected artworks, religious sites and cultural artifacts are not just things we own. They’re what we are. They’re the sum of what we have achieved through our various histories. You could argue that a culture could never fully recover if such an integral part of it is destroyed.

“The director of National Museum of Iraq answered this question eloquently,” says Lehr, “when he explained: ‘Yes, they’re just statues, but for us, they’re living things. We came from them, we are part of them. That is our culture and our belief.’”

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The U.S. has a new weapon to stop black market trafficking in Syrian antiquities

By Christopher Connell – May 24, 2016

A statue destroyed by ISIS outside the Palmyra Museum in historic Palmyra, Syria (© AP images)

Terrorists in Syria don’t just take sledgehammers to ancient temples and sculptures at cultural heritage sites they have overrun: They sell them. They loot coins, statues, tablets and other priceless artifacts and peddle them on black markets in the Middle East and beyond.

A new U.S. law could help keep these treasures from entering the American art and antiquities markets.

By some estimates, the terrorist group known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Daesh) has raised at least $100 million for its war coffers from the sale of stolen antiquities.

Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is among the historic places hit hardest, including the destruction of the famed Temple of Bel. Although Syrian government troops recaptured the city in March, damage to culturally significant sites is severe.

“From the beginning of the rebellion against the Assad regime in March 2011, archaeological sites have been looted in Syria on an organized and industrial scale,” DePaul College of Law professor Patty Gerstenblith told Congress recently. Gerstenblith chairs a federal panel that advises President Obama and the State Department on protecting cultural heritage.

ISIL reportedly takes a 20 percent cut from prized artifacts stolen from archaeological digs, she added.

The Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act gives the U.S. president expanded authority restrict imports of archaeological or ethnological artifacts from Syria. A similar U.S. law helps protect and preserve Iraqi antiquities.

The import restrictions will remain in effect until the crisis in Syria is resolved and the United States can work out with the future Syrian government ways to bar trafficking in these cultural treasures.

“The looting of antiquities is a direct threat to American national security and to humanity’s shared heritage,” said Deborah Lehr, an international business strategist who chairs the Antiquities Coalition. 

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The Scourge of Looting: Trafficking Antiquities, from Temple to Museum

Protecting Cultural Heritage, One Act at a Time

 05/10/2016 06:23 pm ET | Updated 5 days ago

Deborah Lehr, Senior Fellow, The Paulson Institute

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif. (L), and top Democrat Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.,converse, Washington, Jan. 7, 2016. (photo by Julian Pecquet)

The week, President Obama signed the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act (H.R. 1493/S. 1887) to close the U.S. market to plundered Syrian antiquities. Heroes for heritage, Representatives Eliot Engel and Edward Royce, proposed this legislation to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2199. This binding resolution called for countries to cut off access for violent extremist organizations who use antiquities trafficking as a source of revenue. This action helps establish U.S. leadership in the global campaign to protect the heritage of historic civilizations. Yet there is still more to be done.

In the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), ISIL is assaulting the people and their heritage on a scale not seen since World War II. A raid last year on the compound of ISIL leader Abu Sayyaf confirmed how the terrorist organization has institutionalized the trafficking and destruction of antiquities through the creation of its own Ministry of Antiquities and the selling of permits to promote looting and illicit excavations.

These terrorists are making significant profits from this practice. Records seized showed sales worth $1.25 million in just a three month period or $5 million annualized. Counterterrorism experts state that the Paris terrorist attacks cost approximately $30,000 to finance. While not on the scale of oil revenues, clearly sales of these illicit treasures could still fund a significant number of terrorist attacks, especially with millions of sites accessible.

Cultural cleansing—the deliberate destruction of a targeted group and their heritage—is a harbinger of crimes against humanity. These terrorist acts—whether bombing ancient temples in Palmyra, plundering the Mosul Museum, or burning libraries with historic texts in Mali—land violent extremists on the front page of international newspapers and generate attention on social media. This violence strikes at the economy of the countries targeted, intimidates local populations, and eradicates our shared history.

Halting these cultural crimes requires a tough and coordinated international strategy, which the United States could use to strengthen its fight against violent extremism.

It is for these reasons that the Antiquities Coalition, with our partners the Middle East Institute and the Asia Society, released the #CultureUnderThreat Task Force Report on April 13, 2015. The Report provides practical recommendations that the U.S. government can take—both on its own and in conjunction with the international community and the global art market. It calls for actions that will increase coordination between different government agencies, international organizations, art dealers, and auction houses and will—for the first time—institutionalize the approach to combating looting. While this report primarily focuses on the largest demand country, the United States, additional reports will follow for other important stakeholders, including source countries.

Our Task Force is comprised of experts across the heritage, legal, law enforcement, military, and national security communities. Its diverse group brought a holistic approach to defining a strategy given the established links between antiquities trafficking and heritage destruction with genocide, terrorism, transnational organized crime, and money laundering.

Leadership from the White House is essential for success; President Obama took an important step by signing H.R. 1493/S. 1887 into law, but should expand these efforts to protect our own market by using executive powers to block the import of conflict antiquities from countries such as Libya and Yemen, the next targets in the War of Destruction by ISIL. And by appointing a coordinator for this effort at the National Security Council.

Recently, the Department of State has stepped up its diplomatic efforts with countries in the MENA region on cultural heritage protection. Concerted and coordinated efforts by other executive agencies including the National Security Council, the Treasury Department, the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security is also needed to combat this threat to American and global security.

As the gatekeepers of the market for antiquities, museums, dealers, and auction houses have an essential role to play, as well. Above all, greater transparency and vigilance against forged documentation is needed in their dealings, especially from countries in crisis. Tougher regulations, which will restrict antiquities trafficking, will also prevent the US market being a source of financing. And they will protect responsible players in the art market from unknowingly dealing in illicit and fake antiquities.

The report notes that the United Nations can also make a major impact in this fight by including heritage protection in its post-conflict planning, peacekeeping training, and mandates. It should also refer cultural crimes in Iraq and Syria to the International Criminal Court, allowing it to proceed with an investigation as a deterrent against future crimes. Full participation by the United States in UNESCO would also allow it to lead in developing solutions for countries desperate to protect their heritage.

This week’s legislation is an important step towards the U.S. taking on the leadership mantle in the fight against looting and cultural destruction globally. The bill proposed by Representative Keating to strengthen the capability of customs and border enforcement in preventing the traffic in cultural property is another crucial step in this campaign. But adoption of the Task Force recommendations would go far in establishing the United States not just as the largest consumer of art and antiquities—but also its protector.

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President Signs Engel Bill to Stop ISIS From Looting Antiquities

May 9, 2016 

Press Release

New Law Cracks Down on Funding Source for ISIS While Protecting Syria’s Cultural Heritage

WASHINGTON—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today welcomed the President’s signature into law of Rep. Engel’s legislation to crack down on the sale of artifacts looted by ISIS from cultural sites in Syria.  The Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act would contribute to the comprehensive policy of degrading and destroying ISIS without risking American lives or costing American taxpayers.

The new law imposes tough new import restrictions on antiquities that are trafficked out of Syria, bringing U.S. policy in line with a UN Security Council Resolution that called on governments to deny funding to ISIS by preventing trade in Iraqi and Syrian cultural property.

“As part of America’s effort to degrade and destroy ISIS, we need to do all we can to cut off resources for this terrorist group.  Today, we’re putting a new tool to use.  My legislation will crack down on the trafficking of looted Syrian artifacts, which has put millions of dollars in the hands of ISIS extremists,” said Rep. Engel.  “This legislation has earned support from lawmakers of both parties and in both Houses, as well as numerous cultural heritage preservation groups.  I want to thank the President for signaling his support as well, and for signing this bill into law.”

Numerous outside groups and experts voiced their support for the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act when it passed the House late last month.

Deborah Lehr, Chair of the Antiquities Coalition, said, “The passage of the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act is a critical, bipartisan demonstration of American leadership. The looting of antiquities is a direct threat to American national security and to humanity’s shared heritage. By closing the U.S. market for blood antiquities from Syria, the United States is cutting off a key source of terrorist financing. We applaud Representatives Engel, Keating, Royce, and Smith, as well as the entire House and Senate, along with the many individual citizens and groups whose hard work and dedication made the passage of this bill possible. We look forward to working together with them all to ensure its implementation.”                                   

Brian I. Daniels, Director of Research at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum, said, “The protection of human history is a non-partisan issue. Representative Engel has demonstrated great leadership in working with Chairman Royce and other members of the House and Senate in authoring a bipartisan bill that makes a difference in the preservation of cultural heritage.  H.R. 1493 ends the incentive for ISIS to loot antiquities by making it clear that there is no legal market for the artifacts stolen from Syria during the present conflict. But this bill goes even further by encouraging Federal agencies to work together on preserving human history—and holding them accountable to do just that. In recent years, we have watched how terror groups have conspired to erase the history of ethnic and religious groups that they oppose. This bill is insurance that does not happen.”  

Patty Gerstenblith, Distinguished Research Professor at the DePaul University College of Law, said, “With this legislation, the United States has taken a significant step toward reducing the destruction of cultural heritage in the Syrian conflict and preventing the sale of looted antiquities from providing income to ISIL and others engaged in the conflict. The 15 cultural heritage organizations that supported this legislation thank Congressman Engel for his leadership in providing a practical response to the funding of terrorism.”

On June 1, 2015, Representative Engel’s legislation unanimously passed the House.  The Senate approved a slightly modified version of the legislation on April 13, which the House passed by voice vote on April 26.

The law imposes new import restrictions on cultural artifacts removed from Syria. Similar restrictions were enacted in 2004 with respect to Iraqi antiquities.  The law provides exceptions to allow artifacts to enter the United States for temporary protection and restoration.  Restrictions will remain in effect until the crisis in Syria is resolved and America is able to work with a future Syrian government to protect cultural property from trafficking under a bilateral agreement, in accordance with America’s national interests.

Additionally, the law expresses support for a new interagency coordinating body to enhance cooperation among the government agencies, including the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, already working on cultural preservation issues.  It also takes steps to enhance Congressional oversight of this issue.

Representative Engel introduced the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act along with Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Rep. William R. Keating (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade; and Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations.

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Monday, May 9, 2016

President Signs Casey Anti-ISIS Financing Bill Into Law

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released a statement following the President’s signing of H.R. 1493, the “Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act,” which directs the President to exercise his authority to impose import restrictions with respect to archeological or ethnological material of Syria. Casey first introduced the legislation in July of 2015. Companion legislation was also introduced in the House of Representatives.

“I’m pleased that President Obama has signed legislation I put forth with members of Congress in both parties to restrict ISIS’ ability to profit from black market antiquities. This law will aid the Administration’s efforts to put a stranglehold on ISIS’ finances. ISIS cannot be allowed to finance its terrorist operations on the back of our world’s cultural heritage. I’ll continue to press for measures that constrain ISIS’ financing operations.”

ISIS Antiquities Smuggling

A series of reports have indicated that ISIS and criminal opportunists in Iraq and Syria have sought to profit from looting antiquities and selling them illegally on the black market. According to the State Department, on May 15, 2015, U.S. Special Operations Forces recovered a cache of hundreds of archaeological and historical objects and fragments during a raid in al-Amr (eastern Syria) to capture ISIS leader Abu Sayyaf.  As a recent report from the #CultureUnderThreat Task Force states, “[ISIS’s] cultural racketeering is industrial, methodical, and strictly controlled from the highest levels of the organization’s leadership… While [ISIS] was destroying artifacts on camera, as part of their propaganda and recruitment efforts, behind the scenes they were plundering and trafficking them for profit.”

It has been reported that ISIS collects a tax on antiquities excavated and smuggled out of its territory. Artifacts are sold to ISIS-approved dealers, who complete the transaction in U.S. dollars, and are then granted safe passage through ISIS territory. 

Some U.S. estimates have placed the total volume of illicit trade at more than $100 million a year. While government officials say that the majority of the trade is run by the Islamic State, reports suggest that many groups, including portions of the Syrian government, other combatants, criminal networks also smuggle or trade in antiquities.

Why Was this legislation necessary?

The U.S. is a party to a 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. In 1982, Congress passed the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA), which enabled the U.S. government to implement the UNESCO convention.

The United States is a market for antiquities. One provision of CPIA gives the State Department authority to enter into memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with foreign countries to help protect their antiquities by restricting the import of certain items to the United States. Since the U.S. doesn’t have diplomatic relations with the Assad regime, a traditional MOU cannot be entered into. Section 8 of the legislation gives the Administration the authority to impose import restrictions on Syrian antiquities, waiving the provisions of current law that require a request from the country of origin.

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