On April 18, World Heritage Day, representatives from federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, and the private sector came together for a panel discussion on “Combating Cultural Crimes: Where Are We Now?” The Antiquities Coalition was honored to co-sponsor this public event with the MEI, Washington’s oldest think tank and cultural center dedicated to the Middle East.

The event also marked the release of #CultureUnderThreat: Three Years Later, an update to the 2016 task force report, #CultureUnderThreat: Recommendations to the U.S. Government. The report called for new policies, practices, and priorities to reduce heritage destruction and looting, end impunity for cultural crimes, and sever this key source of funding for violent extremist groups. The update, published on the three-year anniversary of the original report, details the present status of each original recommendation.

The panel discussion celebrated successes, identified future challenges, and advocated for further change in the continuous fight against cultural racketeering. To watch the taped panel discussion, click here.

Key takeaways included:

• Need for Buy-in and Support of Local Communities: Arlene Fleming, Cultural Resource and Development Specialist at the World Bank, stressed the importance of engaging with local communities to conserve cultural patrimony and indicated that without such support, antiquities and artifacts will never be protected. She drew on her personal experiences in the Middle East, including ongoing reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
• Art Market Reform is Necessary and Happening: Laura Patten, Specialist Leader at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP and former Special Agent of the FBI Art Crime Team, spoke about how the art market is increasingly calling for due diligence and how such practices provide a competitive edge to legitimate dealers.
• Violent Extremists Use Looting and Destruction of Cultural Heritage for Propaganda and Profit: Larry Schwartz, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, reaffirmed the connection between violent extremists and cultural racketeering. Not only do these armed groups destroy and loot as a means for profit, but also as a powerful propaganda tool.
• Cultural Heritage and Patrimony and Central to National Identity: Domenic DiGiovanni, Vice President of Red Arch, spoke about the social and ideological consequences of cultural racketeering. Using anecdotes from his experiences in Latin America and India, he emphasized the symbolism artifacts often hold. Cultural heritage is important to national identity and cohesiveness, especially during times of political unrest or conflict.

On April 24, Antiquities Coalition Executive Director Tess Davis joined former diplomats, religious leaders, and other experts in Washington, DC for a discussion on the urgency of preserving cultural heritage sites in the Middle East. This meeting was part of the Hudson Institute’s working group on Christians and Religious Pluralism in the Middle East. This bipartisan, multi-faith project is working to identify results-oriented activities that will save lives and restore stability to Christian populations as part of a religiously plural region.

In her remarks, Davis highlighted the importance of combating cultural trafficking and destruction, as well as concrete steps that could be taken in response by governments, non-governmental organizations, and the international community.

She first stressed that culture has always been used as a weapon of war. Many of the sites destroyed by Daesh (ISIS) in recent years — such as Nineveh, Nimrud, and Hatra — were also razed by ancient armies. However, throughout the Middle East today, heritage has also become a criminal, insurgent, and terrorist financing tool. This cultural racketeering is erasing millennia of history, while also funding bad actors who seek to destabilize the region further. Moreover, as with all atrocity crimes, ethnic, racial, religious minority groups are particularly at risk of cultural destruction and trafficking.

In addition to lending insight into such threats, Davis also discussed possible policy responses, drawing from the 2016 task force report, #CultureUnderThreat: Recommendations to the U.S. Government, as well as #CultureUnderThreat: Three Years Later, an update published last week by the Antiquities Coalition. The original report called for new policies, practices, and priorities to reduce heritage destruction and looting, end impunity for cultural crimes, and sever this key source of funding for violent extremist groups. The update, published on the three-year anniversary of the original report, details the present status of each original recommendation.

Some recommendations Davis highlighted:

• Cut off cultural heritage as a source of financing for bad actors. The illicit antiquities trade is demand driven, and no illicit trade has ever been defeated at its source. All states should immediately close their borders to undocumented antiquities from countries in crisis.
• Because cultural heritage provides an important foundation for national reconciliation and economic recovery, its protection should be incorporated in all peacekeeping mandates and training, as well as post-conflict planning and recovery trust funds.
• Crimes against culture should be criminally prosecuted along with other atrocity crimes, either through international tribunals or domestic prosecutions, recognizing they are first and foremost attacks against people.

For more information about these recommendations, and to read the full #CultureUnderThreat Task Force report or its update, click here.

In the vacuum of political instability and breakdown of security created by the 2011 Arab Spring, the world faced a cultural heritage crisis, as violent extremist organizations throughout the Middle East and North Africa transformed archaeological, historic, and religious sites into a weapon of war and terrorist financing tool. Plundered, damaged, and often razed to the ground, cultural patrimony that had survived, unshakeable, for millennia disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In response to this growing emergency, the Antiquities Coalition, the Middle East Institute, and the Asia Society convened a multidisciplinary group of experts to explore solutions and serve as an ongoing resource to policymakers. Their resulting 2016 report, #CultureUnderThreat: Recommendations for the U.S. Government, called for new policies, practices, and priorities for U.S. policymakers, the international community, and the art market to reduce heritage destruction and looting, end impunity for cultural crimes, and sever this key source of funding for violent extremist groups.

Since then, we have seen significant progress on multiple fronts, though in some instances regression to policies that fail to protect our cultural heritage and collective security.

The Federal Government

The Antiquities Coalition commends the United States for closing borders to Syrian antiquities by way of the “Protect and Preserve Cultural Property Act” (H.R. 1493/S. 1887), codified in May 2016. This bill was a critical step in implementing UNSC Resolutions 2199 and 2253, and furthermore compelled the Department of State to establish a Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee, an unprecedented inter-agency partnership. Indeed, a recent uptick in cultural bilateral agreements processed by the Department of State reveals a heightened awareness of both antiquities trafficking as national security risk, and import restrictions as an opportunity for strengthened partnerships between countries of origin and the United States.

The Department of Defense (DOD) continues to collaborate with the United States Committee of the Blue Shield and partners to develop and utilize no-strike lists throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and has extended these efforts to include no-loot materials for troops stationed in South and Central America. The department nevertheless still lacks an institutionalized approach to cultural property resource management and protection training. However, pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, the department has designated a DOD Coordinator for Cultural Heritage, tasked with managing existing obligations for the protection of cultural heritage and overseeing a DOD coordinating committee for the protection of heritage.

Although the Department of Justice has made positive inroads in prosecuting cultural property crimes, it too lacks an agency-wide approach. The majority of cases result still in seizure and repatriation, rather than criminal prosecution. However, recent efforts by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement reveal the difference even a few dedicated attorneys and agents can make.

The International Community

In the international realm, the United Nations has increasingly highlighted the intersection of heritage and human rights, as well as the role of heritage protection in peace and security. UNSC Resolution 2347, passed in March 2017, is the first to focus exclusively on the role of cultural patrimony. Furthermore, the International Criminal Court prosecution of Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi has set an important precedent for subsequent investigations into deliberate or reckless destruction of cultural heritage. However, the removal of cultural heritage from the United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations mission in Mali represents a significant step back. Likewise, the United States’ withdrawal from UNESCO in January 2019 signals a disappointing unwillingness to lead in matters of cultural heritage protection around the world.

The Art Market

The art market has progressively drawn attention to its own vulnerability to suspicious trade practices, attributable to its unusually high volume of legally questionable transactions. However, the market continues to lag in proactive steps to not only prevent antiquities trafficking, but also protect individual and institutional collectors from unknowingly dealing in looted antiquities, fakes, and forgeries. Recent multi-industry initiatives in Europe, as well as a legislative push for improved market regulation in the United States, have begun to pave the way for change

The following update, published on the three-year anniversary of the original report, details the status of each original  recommendation, highlighting successes and identifying future challenges in this ongoing fight. We urge the United States government, international policymakers, and art market stakeholders to continue to utilize and build upon these recommendations as a roadmap for action in the continuous effort to prevent cultural crimes around the world.

Download the Full Report Here

Ambassador Yasser Elnaggar is a career diplomat with more than 25 years of experience in foreign policy, national security, business, trade and investment, who has served around the world for his government. He was Senior Policy Adviser to the Presidents of the 61st and 64th sessions at the General Assembly of the United Nations, Director of the Department of United Nations Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Egypt, Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations as well as Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and to the Secretary General of the League of Arab States. Currently, Ambassador Elnaggar is CEO of ENInvestment, a full-fledged multiline management advisory and investment house that provides personalized services to its clientele. Ambassador Elnaggar serves on the Advisory Council of the Antiquities Coalition.

While serving as Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt from 2010-2014, your leadership helped to close U.S. borders to your country’s illicit antiquities, which were flooding the American black market following the June 30 Revolution. When did you first learn about this cultural racketeering and what tools did the embassy use to combat it?

In the wake of the 25th of January revolution and the events by organized crime to loot the Egyptian Museum and the reaction of the Egyptian population who shielded the Museum with their own bodies, it was evident that there was a coordinated attempt to rob Egypt of its heritage and identity. In April of 2011, the Capital Archeological Institute at George Washington University, led by Deborah Lehr, provided me and the Embassy the satellite imagery of archeological sites in the Dahshur area where looting was taking place. We immediately worked to organize a delegation from the Capital Archeological Institute and the Archeological Institute of America to visit Cairo in May 2011 where they met an interagency senior official group from the Egyptian government to discuss ways and means to combat what has become quickly a trend of illegal excavations, smuggling, and sale of Egyptian Antiquities.

The Embassy used its wide range of contacts in the U.S. to bring awareness of this phenomena as most of the looted antiquities were sold in the U.S. market through dealerships and e-commerce platforms.

AC Chairman and Founder Deborah Lehr and Ambassador Yasser Elnaggar at the Egypt-ICPEA Public-Private Partnership Signing.

Beyond your role as the DCM in Washington, you have had a distinguished career as a policymaker, diplomat, and one of Egypt’s leading economic experts. Based on this extensive experience, why do you feel that fighting antiquities looting and trafficking is important? 

Fighting looting and trafficking is important in many ways, especially for a country like Egypt that hosts almost 50 percent of the world’s known antiquities. It is not only identity theft, but also an economic crime the deprives the country of its most important tourism asset. It is also a crime against common human heritage when thieves and thugs loot treasures for the benefit of some wealthy individuals around the globe. Egyptian antiquities should be displayed for the entire human race as part of the common human heritage. In addition, most of those organized gangs use the returns of the illegal trafficking of the antiquities to fund other organized crimes or terrorist groups. This is why governments around the world, as well as organizations and civil societies, need to adopt a coordinated policy to combat this.

Egypt is not alone in its battle to combat looting, and indeed every country with a rich history is at risk, including many throughout the Middle East and North Africa. What advice would you give their governments, to help them preserve their past for future generations? 

Egypt was not alone as a target of racketeering and illicit trafficking of antiquities. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and many other countries face the same situation. The Middle East is the most affected region of racketeering in the past for seven years. It is incumbent on all governments and people who believe in common human history to stand together to face those who profit from stealing our common past from our future generations.

UNESCO should have played a much bigger role in changing the policies and rules that puts the onus on countries like Egypt and the rest to provide proof of looting and racketeering when the onus should be on those who are selling and trafficking those items.

The United Nations should adopt an approach to lead the negotiations for drafting a new convention to combat this phenomenon.

On this front, what accomplishments make you the proudest, personally?

Personally, I am proud to be a part of the effort to raise awareness at home and abroad about cultural racketeering and illicit trafficking of antiquities. I believe that those efforts were essential in paving the way for the signature of several MOUs between the U.S. and many countries in the Middle East to empower law enforcement authorities in the U.S. to detect and address trafficking in antiquities.

Finally, Egypt is home to so many wonders of the world, what is your favorite archaeological or historic site? 

As an Egyptian and son of a very rich culture, there is no single favorite archeological site to me. What amazes me always is the diversity embedded in the Egyptian culture. Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic heritage makes Egypt a melting pot. People across the world need to embrace this diversity and the fact that heritage from all those periods remain vivid not only in the Egyptian culture, but more importantly in the traditions of its people. That is the wonder of Egypt.