Executive Director Tess Davis and leading Ukrainian heritage professional Ihor Poshyvailo discuss threats to museums in Ukraine, and the world.

Recent years have been witness to the world’s leading museums caught up in scandals, lawsuits, and even criminal prosecutions for acquiring, possessing, or even just displaying stolen or looted art and antiquities. Together, actors in public and private cultural sectors have made significant progress on these fronts, but much remains to be done. 

Responsible players in the art market are also beginning to recognize their vulnerability to new emerging threats—that is financial crimes in the art market.

Addressing the world’s leading experts in museum security at the Smithsonian National Conference on Cultural Property Protection held at the Getty Museum, Executive Director Tess Davis spoke about recent case studies of economic crime, providing a new perspective on the leading risks to museum institutions’ staff and reputations. Davis opened the discussion with this affirmation,

“Any institution that operates within the art market, any institution that accepts donations, frankly any institution that operates globally, even—and perhaps especially—public institutions like museums, needs to be aware of what is happening.”

Following her remarks, Davis interviewed Dr. Ihor Poshyvailo, General Director of the National Museum of Revolution of Dignity and the Co-Founder and Coordinator of the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative. Dr. Poshyvailo has been on the frontlines of the war of Russian aggression in Ukraine, experiencing firsthand how cultural identity and heritage have become weapons and victims in the ongoing conflict.

Historical propaganda has long been a central component of Moscow’s information warfare campaign. However, since the 2014 invasion of Crimea, art has likewise been a documented tool for key Kremlin allies to evade sanctions, launder money, and hide their substantial assets. Recalling looting in museums by Russian armed forces, Igor painted a picture of the harsh realities museum professionals on the ground in Ukraine face to this day.

From the event, participants gained a greater appreciation of the risks inherent in today’s art market. As both market participants and stewards of sought-after cultural materials, museum institutions have tremendous potential to change the art world for the better–or worse.

Follow the critical work of the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative

Learn more about Russia’s cultural warfare in our Think Tank Policy Brief, here.

Read AC Founder and Chair Deborah Lehr’s Op Ed on how Russian oligarchs use the art market to evade US Economic Sanctions, here.

G7 Italian Presidency Convenes World Powers to Confront Transnational Threats Posed by the Illicit Trade In Cultural Goods

On September 19-21, world leaders met in Naples for the 2024 G7 Cultural Ministerial. At the meeting’s conclusion, the G7 leaders adopted the Ministerial Declaration on Culture, Common good of humanity, and Common responsibility.

Like the Group of 20 (G20), the Group of 7 (G7) unites global economic leaders to confront the world’s leading problems. Current G7 members include the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), and representatives form the European Union.

This year, Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli brought Ministers of Culture from the G7 Member States for a meeting, which addressed critical heritage issues including protecting cultural identities, culture in the time of artificial intelligence, climate change resilience, and—notably—the global fight against the illicit traffic of cultural goods.

The G7 Ministerial Declaration highlighted the threat posed by illicit art and antiquities trafficking:

Acknowledging that illicit trafficking of cultural property is not only linked to organized crime and in some cases even terrorist financing, the latter notably in conflict or post-conflict situations, but cultural property can also be misused for money laundering, corruption, tax evasion and sanctions evasion.”

The statement also importantly introduced targeted actions to combat these threats:

• To improve the prevention and detection of transnational crimes involving art and antiquities, members committed to strengthening cooperation and coordination, with the help of leading and emerging international agencies in the space. Alongside established powerhouses such as UNESCO, ICCROM, OSCE, WCO and Interpol, the Declaration encouraged members to capitalize on protections offered by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). These protections are enumerated in the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the UN Convention Against Transnational Crime (UNTOC).
• G7 members will consider the possible negotiation of bilateral agreements to streamline cooperation between our competent authorities in the process of research, identification and return of illicitly trafficked cultural property. Such agreements between countries with large markets for antiquities, so-called “market countries” would aid in preventing illicit cultural imports and would hugely benefit recovery and restitution efforts. 
• To further transnational cooperation, the G7 states will use their advantage as tech pioneers to promote accessibility and interoperability among existing tools and national databases on stolen cultural property. Members also commit to support AI-powered investigative tools to analyze the art market and to monitor and inspect the illegal trade of cultural property, similar to the Stolen Works of Art Detection System (SWOADS) developed by the Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. 
• Lastly, members made major commitments for capacity building—particularly in developing countries— through partnerships with international organizations, culture and heritage professionals, law enforcement units and customs and judiciary authorities.

The Antiquities Coalition welcomes these recommendations, many of which are in line with those we have made in our three task force reports and a number of separate events. It is more critical than ever for market countries to take action in the global struggle to protect shared cultural heritage threatened by the illicit market. Combined the G7 countries account for more than 69% of the global art market. 

Access the Ministerial Declaration on Culture, Common Good of Humanity, and Common Responsibility and learn more about the ongoing work of the G7 Italian Presidency, here.

Check out recommendations from our G20 Task Force, our Financial Crimes Task Force, our Culture Under Threat Tasks Force, and our events with UNCAC and UNTOC.

Museum actions speak louder than announcements, especially when it comes to taking accountability for past wrongs.

While the return of an object to a country of origin is important, it is only one part of a comprehensive, ethical, and transparent provenance program. Other important steps include proactive collections research, open and honest communication and collaboration with stakeholders, updating policy for the 21st century, and following not only the letter, but the spirit of the law.

As  public institutions, museums owe this to their local, national and international, public audiences. Until then, the public should feel empowered to hold museums accountable, and should follow the their repatriation efforts closely. The AC is watching this space, and we encourage the public to do the same.

Read our recent LinkedIn article on the Met’s actions vs. announcements here and below, and follow the AC for more.

The Antiquities Coalition was grateful to participate in The Third Doha Workshop to Combat Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Heritage: Strengthening the Legislative and Legal Framework and Building Institutional Capacities, hosted by the Qatar National Library (QNL), and the US, Italian, and French Embassies in Doha. 

The only U.S. NGO in attendance, the Antiquities Coalition was strongly represented at the event by Executive Director Tess Davis and Director of Programs Helena Arose. Davis and Arose joined distinguished speakers over the course of one week, and presented on different aspects of the legal framework to fight cultural racketeering: 

• The illicit trade in art and antiquities is, first and foremost, a crime. Executive Director Tess Davis addressed how, nationally and internationally, we must take better advantage of existing laws and conventions combating corruption, fraud, money laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing. Pursuant of a whole-of-UN approach, she recommended the harmonization of UN treaties, such as those overseen by UNESCO and UNODC, UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
• Director of Programs Helena Arose presented on soft law as well as other policies, such as declarations, principles, and resolutions, which are not legally binding, but can help address gaps in the current legal framework for protecting cultural heritage, drawing from her own work at the AC. She concluded her talk with a recommendation to optimize soft law tools to build momentum for legal change, while filling the gaps in existing policy.

AC-led discussions complemented themes across the conference, which highlighted trends in legal implementation and adaptation–namely, the challenges and progress made in tailoring 20th century French laws for modern Middle Eastern contexts. All speakers noted that the framework has flaws: inconsistent translation into Arabic, gaps in the criminalization of illicit antiquities trade, and overall lack of region-specific law enforcement and judiciary tools.

Poor understanding creates poor policy. Dedicated, interdisciplinary research into existing legal frameworks and evolving problems is essential to ensure that policymakers account for the needs of local and international communities.

Learn more about the conference here.