Nearly ten years have passed since Attorney Ricardo A. St. Hilaire wrote “How to End Impunity for Antiquities Traffickers: Assemble a Cultural Heritage Crimes Prosecution Team.” 

In 2016, St. Hilaire cautioned, “by prioritizing repatriations over indictments, the federal government’s ‘seize and send’ policy has failed to curb a vast black market industry.” 

To hold antiquities traffickers accountable for their crimes, St. Hilaire’s policy brief explores how the Department of Justice (DOJ) could take a leadership role in the global fight against the illicit antiquities trade by appointing designated prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against smugglers, corrupt dealers, and their accomplices. 

Still, to this day antiquities traffickers rarely face prosecution, conviction, or imprisonment—despite U.S. law enforcement’s steadily rising success in stopping looted and stolen artifacts at the border. Attorney St. Hilaire’s solution to this issue is as relevant as ever. 

Access the Rereleased Policy Brief on Scholastica, here.

Read an exclusive interview with the author on the AC Think Tank Blog.

On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, Executive Director Tess Davis joined leading legal experts in a critical conversation on the role of provenance research in addressing the legal and ethical challenges of cultural restitution. Hosted online by the American Society of International Law (ASIL), the event, The Legal Dimension of Provenance Research: International, Comparative, Indigenous, explored how provenance research serves as a foundation for enforcing cultural property laws and righting historical injustices.

The roundtable brought together experts in law, heritage, and restitution to provide critical insights into how provenance research is shaping today’s legal landscape. The discussion highlighted emerging legal frameworks and precedents and explored how institutions can proactively engage in responsible collecting and restitution efforts.

Provenance research—the investigation of an object’s ownership history—is more than just a scholarly endeavor. It is an essential tool in the legal framework that governs the return and restitution of cultural objects, particularly in cases of:

AC Executive Director Tess Davis spoke to the legal and reputational risks institutions face when acquiring or holding objects with unclear or suspect provenance. As recent high-profile cases have demonstrated, failure to conduct rigorous provenance research can entangle museums, auction houses, and collectors in lawsuits and international criminal investigations. Davis remarked,

“Proving authenticity, good title, and provenance or the chain of ownership are all critical to  ensuring antiquities and other high-risk cultural objects are not just legally but ethically acquired. This safeguards cultural heritage, but it also protects the vast majority of legitimate collectors, dealers, and museums.”

Beyond institutional concerns, the discussion also highlighted how provenance research plays a crucial role in protecting American consumers and markets from criminal activity enabled by illicit antiquities flows.

The global trade in stolen and looted cultural property has been linked to terrorist financing, organized crime, and money laundering, posing significant security risks. By ensuring that artworks and antiquities enter the market through legal and ethical channels, provenance research helps disrupt illicit networks and safeguard the integrity of both cultural institutions and financial systems.

Earlier this year, the San Bernardino County Museum (SBCM) announced the return of 1,294 archaeological objects to Mexico. 

Presented as evidence of the widespread looting and trafficking of Mexico’s cultural heritage, Ambassador Javier Díaz de León of the Mexican Foreign Service unpacked this repatriation and others at an Antiquities Coalition side event during the 10th session of the Conference of the States Parties (CoSP10) to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

Ambassador Díaz de León also warned that America’s market for Mexico’s art and antiquities is fueling organized crime. He shared, 

“The trafficking of cultural goods has been identified as a way for criminal cells to facilitate money laundering by laundering cultural objects, thus becoming a source of financing for terrorist groups.”

In Mexico, cultural racketeering is embedded in organized criminal networks—known to use intimidation and money to influence the rule of law. As is true globally, this problem cannot be fixed by better archaeology, but by strengthened legal frameworks and law enforcement. 

Furthermore, these are transnational crimes and require regional or international solutions. Ambassador Díaz de León’s experiences suggest that UNCAC is more than relevant to crimes involving art and antiquities—it is an essential tool. 

The Antiquities Coalition again thanks the Italian Republic, the United Mexican States, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for supporting this constructive dialogue as part of the special events program “Cultural Racketeering & Corruption—Recommendations for UNCAC”.

Read more about adding cultural racketeering to the campaign against corruption, here.

Learn about the San Bernardino County Museum repatriation, here.

On January 20, 2022, U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Mary Beth Leonard and Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed signed a bilateral cultural property agreement, committing both countries to combating the illicit trade. 

This agreement closes U.S. borders to illegally acquired or exported Nigerian antiquities. By partnering with the United States, the world’s largest art market, Nigeria’s cultural heritage will enjoy stronger protections, while at the same time, American consumers will also be protected from unknowingly buying stolen property. The partnership will ideally cut down the global demand for illicit cultural items from Nigeria  and return some already lost to their rightful home

The AC spoke with Dr. Leslye Obiora,  Professor of Law at the University of Arizona to learn more about the benefits of this agreement.

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Can you give an overview of the recent Cultural Property Agreement between the United States and Nigeria, and explain why it is important?

The Cultural Property Agreement between the United States and Nigeria is intended to strengthen bilateral cooperation to advance shared interests and to accomplish the following main objectives:

1. Facilitate robust collaboration between U.S. and Nigerian federal law enforcement and border control agencies to identify, intercept, repatriate, and protect cultural and heritage property. 
2. Promote the exchange of archaeological materials for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes with the aim of increasing public awareness for Nigerian cultural heritage.

This agreement is a major milestone in global efforts and partnerships to preserve, restore, and protect diverse categories of cultural heritage from pillage and trafficking. The United States ratified the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The US implements its obligations under this Convention through the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA), 19 U.S.C. §§ 2601-2613. This legislation authorizes the President of the United States to enter into bilateral Cultural Property Agreements (CPA) with other State Parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention. The CPA is administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through the Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC). In 2020, Nigeria requested a Memorandum of Understanding for import restrictions to protect its rich and diverse cultural property. The CPAC reviewed and recommended Nigeria’s request for approval. This process culminated in the recent adoption of the Cultural Property Agreement.

 

Nigeria has a rich cultural heritage. Can you give us some examples and explain why Nigerian cultural heritage needs protections like the CPA?

As the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, observed cogently at the signing ceremony of the CPA, the rich tapestry of Nigeria’s cultural heritage is exemplified by the unique Nok terracotta dating back to the fifth century B.C. and the incomparable bronzes that once decorated the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Benin. 

There are intrinsic, instrumental, and constructive values in protecting cultural and heritage property from illicit trade. The international human rights agenda protects the Nigerians’ right to culture, individually and collectively. Similarly, heritage property are a global public good. From an instrumental perspective, protecting and preserving cultural heritage through cultural property agreements promote stability, economic development, good governance, inter alia. Constitutively, the CPA contributes to enable environment and deepen opportunities for international learning, exchange, and cooperation. The global dialogue heightened by the continuing returns of the Benin Bronzes corroborate the enormous value of promoting cultural diplomacy and capture the growing grassroots conditions galvanizing the momentum for such dialogue in ways that compel State Parties to fulfill their treaty obligations. While the CPA is a major achievement, it is notable that it was signed more than half a century after the 1970 UNESCO Convention came into existence.

On August 23, 2021, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Matthew Lussenhop and Albanian’s Minister of Culture Elva Margariti signed a bilateral cultural property agreement, committing both countries to combating the illicit trade. 

This agreement closes U.S. borders to illegally acquired or exported Albanian antiquities. Moreover, it will open new opportunities for responsible cultural exchange between the two nations, such as traveling exhibitions and museum loans.

For more insight into the benefits of this agreement, we spoke to Dr. Ols Lafe, Director of the Center for the Development of Ancient and Medieval Albanian Heritage (CDAMAH), a scientific research center based at the state university “Aleksandër Moisiu” in Durrës, Albania.

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Can you give an overview of the recent Cultural Property Agreement between the United States and Albania, and explain why it is important?

The recently signed CPA between Albania and USA is of utmost importance regarding the ever increasing issue of illegal circulation of cultural objects from their original context. Albania, has already a negative record regarding the loss of objects and such agreements add value to the government objectives of protecting the heritage of the country. This agreement above all, enables US authorities to send back to Albania any items that may originate from Albania and ensure smooth coordination regarding such issues in the future. 

 

Albania has a rich cultural heritage. Can you give us some examples and explain why Albanian cultural heritage should be protected?

Albania’s rich heritage is well-known to researchers but not so much to visitors. From the UNESCO sites of Butrint, Gjirokastra, Berat and Ohrid Lake to the Illyrian, ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman sites dotting the country’s landscape, Albania has a lot to offer to both academic research and cultural tourism. Nevertheless, the period which followed soon after the collapse of the communist regime, also brought irreparable damages to this heritage, with countless lost objects stolen from museums, as well as the beginning of the illegal excavations and subsequent loss of objects coming from these excavations. 

The phenomenon persists, and it’s even getting more intense in rural areas, with metal detectors widely used and in cases heavy digging machinery is involved. The Ministry of Culture is not able to cope with the phenomena, and the Albanian Police despite their willingness are able to trace only a few cases of wrongdoing and address them to the Prosecution Office. Many other cases go unnoticed due to the lack of territorial control, lack of equipment and training to tackle the phenomena. It is hoped that through such agreement the situation may improve given the fact that staff has to be trained to interact with requests originating from a partner country such as USA and be able to provide in a timely manner the respective needed information.   

 

CPAs help facilitate legal cultural exchange. Can you share some examples of US/Albania joint projects, excavations?

There are many common projects and excavations between Albania and US based research institutions. 

The first American research project in Albania was an investigation of Konispol Cave, co-directed by Karl Petruso (University of Texas, Arlington) and Muzafer Korkuti (Institute of Archaeology, Tirana). The first large-scale American project was the Mallakastër Regional Archaeological Project (MRAP) at the Greek colony of Apollonia, co-directed by Jack Davis (University of Cincinnati), Sharon Stocker (University of Cincinnati), Michael Galaty (University of Michigan), Muzafer Korkuti and Skender Muçaj (Institute of Archaeology, Tirana).

 Investigations at Dyrrachium-Epidamnus (an ancient Greek city in Illyria founded in the 7th century BC by colonists from Corinth and Corcyra) were co-directed by Davis and Stocker together with Iris Pojani and Afrim Hoti (Institute of Archaeology, Tirana). The Bonjaket Temple excavations, which emerged from MRAP, were codirected by Davis, Stocker, Pojani, and Vangjel Dimo. Michael Galaty also co-directed the Shala Valley project together with Ols Lafe (Institute of Archaeology, Tirana) and Zamir Trafilica (Historic Museum Shkoder). The Projekti Arkeologik i Shkodres, codirected by Michael Galaty (University of Michigan) and Lorenc Bejko (University of Tirana), aimed to curtail destruction and looting of burial mounds. Sarah Morris (UCLA), John Papadopoulos (UCLA), and Albanian colleagues have directed an excavation of the Lofkënd tumulus (an early Iron Age burial mound). 

 

How can people in the US learn more about Albania and Albanian cultural heritage?

It would be good to support on an annual basis the travel of Albanian experts to the US, especially to attend annual meetings of the Archaeological Institute of America, the Society of American Archaeology as well as supporting them to lecture in American universities with an interest in the Mediterranean and a focus in Albania. By making available the information for funding applications to Albanian experts, we as well are supporting them to come in touch with respective institutions may be one of the possible solutions to directly disseminating the reality of Albanian cultural heritage research at the heart of America’s leading researchers and programs.

Certainly there are instruments in place for longer periods of study and residence such as the Fulbright, but quicker methods such as described above may function better. Also, inviting US scholars to visit Albania, and decide if they want to engage in research here may be another way of getting to know the country and presenting it better abroad.