The Gulf region is rapidly emerging as a global leader in arts, culture, and heritage—demonstrating not only its investment in preserving its own rich legacy, but also its commitment to international cooperation. This dedication was on full display at The International Forum on Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Development: Fostering a Culture of Integrated Protection, hosted in Abu Dhabi by the Department of Culture and Tourism.

Bringing together policymakers, educators, cultural heritage experts, and legal specialists from across the globe, the forum highlighted the importance of integrated, cross-sector solutions to the challenges facing cultural heritage today. Its collaborative format underscored a regional and international recognition that heritage protection is not a local issue—it is a global imperative requiring united action.

The Antiquities Coalition was honored to contribute to this important dialogue. Executive Director Tess Davis spoke on Enhancing Policy, Governance, Collaboration, and Legal Frameworks for Cultural Heritage Protection, sharing core strategies that have proven effective in the fight against cultural racketeering:

1. Leveraging existing tools and frameworks to protect the art and antiquities market from criminal misuse. Davis recalled the resonating impact of the Government of Yemen’s ratification of the 1970 UNESCO Convention in 2019—an extraordinary achievement during the height of the country’s humanitarian crisis—which enabled a bilateral Cultural Property Agreement with the United States to protect Yemeni antiquities.
2. Identifying and addressing gaps in laws, policies, and best practices to strengthen systemic safeguards. Bringing together the United States and Bahrain, the AC proudly facilitated the development of the Manama Statement, a focused, action-oriented agreement advancing bilateral cooperation against cultural racketeering and serving as a model for targeted legal reform.
3. Building and mobilizing political will to ensure meaningful enforcement and reform. The 2015 Cairo Declaration and 2016 Amman Communiqué, in which 17 MENA nations pledged to integrate heritage protection into their broader efforts to combat violent extremism, are strong examples of how high level convenings forge enduring relationships, enhancing regional heritage protections.

The Antiquities Coalition commends the Department of Culture and Tourism for convening such a timely and impactful forum, and looks forward to continued collaboration with partners in the Gulf and around the world to protect our shared heritage from looting, trafficking, and destruction.

Learn more about the forum, here.

Cultural plunder has consequences far beyond the crime itself.

When heritage is looted, entire communities lose access to entire chapters of their history. Even when artifacts are returned, the question remains: How do we return heritage—responsibly?

Statues from the Royal Palaces of Abomey. Musée du Quai Branly, 2018. Image by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra.

Dahomey, a 2024 documentary film directed by Mati Diop, traces the journey of 26 royal treasures from the Quai Branly in Paris back to the Kingdom of Dahomey in the modern-day Republic of Benin.

Publicly accessible and critically acclaimed, this film is attracting significant attention to the heritage field. Dahomey has been named “Best Film” at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.

Mati Diop’s telling of the Benin repatriation is both poignant and pragmatic, documenting the often-overlooked practicalities of repatriation: from tediously inventorying and packing objects to hauling them up museum steps for reinstallation. Following a detailed portrayal of the artifacts’ journey to the brand-new Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Diop turns the microphone on Benin’s youth. Students at Benin’s University of Abomey-Calavi are shown engaging in nuanced debates about the implications of this repatriation—from political motives and economic limitations to the return’s postcolonial underpinnings. 

With Dahomey, Mati Diop concisely captures the key issues of cultural repatriation and communicates the enduring harms of colonialism and cultural plunder. 

Find out more about the film here.

Dr. Leslye Obiora seeks solutions to improve cultural repatriation to Africa in the AC Think Tank piece, “How Can the Protection of Cultural Property be Strengthened in Africa?” Read it here. 

The Antiquities Coalition Think Tank has released a new commentary titled “How Can the Protection of Cultural Property be Strengthened in Africa?”

Author Dr. Leslye Obiora, Professor of Law and former Minister of Mining and Steel Development for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, explores the importance of engaging traditional authorities in cultural property discussions and policy-making.

Dr. Obiora highlights Nigeria’s recent decision to grant ownership of the returned Benin Bronzes to the Oba as a powerful example of how involving local leadership can improve cultural property protection. Nigeria, like many African countries, faces unique post-colonial challenges that are often overlooked by Western legal frameworks.

In light of these oversights, Dr. Obiora evaluates the extent to which legal protections—such as the 1970 UNESCO Convention—to prevent the illicit transfer of cultural property accommodate local customs and authority structures. 

Her findings provide insights into the critical role traditional authorities could play in ensuring global efforts to safeguard Africa’s cultural heritage from cultural plunder are well-informed and just. 

Read and download Dr. Obiora’s AC Think Tank commentary here.

Browse all AC Think Tank publications here.

Following years of conflict in Sudan, the dust is finally settling in its capital city of Khartoum—revealing evidence of mass-looting, ravaged museums, and empty historical archives.

Despite herculean efforts on the ground, Sudan’s people continue to suffer one of the greatest cultural crises in recent history. Is it time to take a step back and reevaluate our international framework for heritage protection?

Read our recent LinkedIn article featuring a collaboration between one of Sudan’s most dedicated heritage professionals, Ali Nour, and AC Director of Programs Helena Arose, here and below, and follow the AC for more.

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.

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.

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.