The United States and Bahrain: Strengthening Bilateral Ties to Fight Against the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property

Join Us Live for a Stimulating Discussion with Leaders in Culture and Government

On October 28, join the Antiquities Coalition, in collaboration with the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and the U.S. Department of State, for a live webinar on the critical role of culture in global security, national economies, and foreign diplomacy.  Internationally recognized leaders in government and the arts, from both the United States and Bahrain, will discuss challenges to combating cultural property crimes, as well as shared principles that support responsible cultural exchange.

This webinar will take place on Zoom with simultaneous interpretation into English and Arabic. Distinguished speakers include: 

• HE Shaikha Mai AlKhalifa, President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA), Kingdom of Bahrain
• Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki, Special Advisor to the Director-General of ICCROM and Special Advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO
• Dr. Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large, Smithsonian Institution
• Matthew Lussenhop, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau Of Educational And Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_oKXAFLm0TFu1D9XgrCIT-A

 

More About the Discussion

Both the U.S. and Bahraini governments have warned that the illicit trade in art and artifacts is a threat to international peace and security due to its financing of organized crime, armed conflict, and violent extremism. The Middle East and North Africa, with its rich and diverse history, has much to lose from this cultural racketeering. Daesh has made frontpage headlines for its pillage of the Cradle of Civilization, but experts continue to warn that antiquities looting and trafficking is funding Daesh in Libya, Al Qaeda and the Houthi militias in Yemen, and, farther afield, the Taliban in Afghanistan. Moreover, this terrorist financing often goes hand-in-hand with money laundering and other financial crimes, to which the art market is also particularly vulnerable, as well as targeted cultural destruction. 

The United States is in a unique position to make a difference, as it remains the world’s largest art market, making up 42% of the global total. However, with the creation of new and prominent museums, a booming art market, and a strong push for cultural tourism, the Gulf States are quickly becoming key players. In particular, with strong ministerial leadership from the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Bahrain has achieved significant strides in heritage conservation and serves as the headquarters for the Arab regional Centre for World Heritage which provides support to 19 Arab countries towards the promotion and management of cultural and natural sites. With its close global ties and effective regional diplomacy, the Kingdom is well positioned to become a leader in the global fight against the illicit trafficking of art and artifacts.

 

More About Our Esteemed Panelists

HE Shaikha Mai AlKhalifa, President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA), Kingdom of Bahrain

A leading figure in the Arab World for her work in the field of culture, HE Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al-Khalifa has spearheaded national efforts to develop the cultural infrastructure in the Kingdom of Bahrain for heritage conservation and the growth of sustainable tourism. The President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, HE Shaikha Mai is the foremost public expert in the field, holding the unique portfolios of the Ministry for Culture & Information and then the Ministry for Culture. As the founder of the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research and Chair of its Board of Trustees since 2002, she works actively to foster culture and preserve the traditional architecture of Bahrain. It was to this end that she launched the nation-wide ‘Investing in Culture’ initiative, building an unprecedented partnership between the private and public sectors for heritage preservation. Her vision and leadership have resulted in a worldwide recognition of the Kingdom’s historic and cultural significance and the listing of three Bahrain sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

HE Shaikha Mai holds an MA in Political History and is the author of seven books. She is recipient of many distinguished awards including; ‘Légion d’Honneur’ (2008) and ‘Knight of Légion d’Honneur’ from the French Government (2011), ‘Noble Honour’ for being a distinguished international personality in the field of Ideology and Culture by a royal decree from His Majesty Muhammad Al-Sadis, King of Morocco (2010), ‘Colbert Prize for Creativity and Heritage’ (2010), and ‘Watch Award’ by the World Monuments Fund (2015). She has also been nominated ‘Special Ambassador of the International Year of Sustainability for Development 2017’ (2017-2019) by the World Tourism Organization and ‘Arab Heritage Personality of 2019’ by the Arab Tourism Media Centre in 2019. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Monument Fund.

 

Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki, Special Advisor to the Director-General of ICCROM and Special Advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO

Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki has had a 25-year career in UNESCO as Assistant Director-General for Culture; Director of the Division of Cultural Heritage; and Director of the World Heritage Centre. He was Director-General of ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) from 2005 until 2011. He is also a past-Director of the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage. Currently, Mounir Bouchenaki is acting as Special Advisor to the Director-General of ICCROM and Special Advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO. He contributed between 2013 and 2017 to the launching of a UNESCO category II Centre, ‘The Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage based in Bahrain’.

 

Matthew Lussenhop, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau Of Educational And Cultural Affairs

Matthew Lussenhop joined the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) in July 2019.  He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, and has served his country as a Foreign Service Officer since 1990. Prior to his arrival at ECA, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the Embassy of the United States to the Kingdom of Belgium, August 2016-June 2019, including 18 months as Chargé d’affaires.  From 2013-2016, he was the DCM at the U.S. Embassy to the Kingdom of Morocco, including ten months as the Chargé d’affaires.  Mr. Lussenhop previously served in ECA as a Senior Advisor for Policy from 2011-2013.

Mr. Lussenhop has served in the field of public diplomacy and strategic communications in numerous posts overseas, including Public Affairs Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2010-2011.  Other overseas assignments include positions at U.S. embassies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Muscat, Oman; Rabat, Morocco; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Manila, Philippines. In Washington, DC, Mr. Lussenhop has served in the State Department’s Bureau of Near East and North African Affairs, and as Director of Public Diplomacy Training at the Foreign Service Institute.Mr. Lussenhop is the recipient of multiple State Department Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards.  He speaks Arabic and French, and is a native of Minnesota and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

 

Moderated by Dr. Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large, Smithsonian Institution 

Dr. Richard Kurin is the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large, the first person so designated in the 171-year history of the Institution. Prior to his current role, Kurin served as Acting Provost and Under Secretary for Museums and Research from 2015, and from 2007, as Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture. Kurin served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and helped draft an international treaty, now ratified by 170 nations, to safeguard living cultural heritage. He led efforts to save heritage in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and has overseen projects for saving heritage endangered by natural disaster in Nepal and the U.S., and by human conflict in Mali, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. Kurin serves as Smithsonian liaison to the U.S. President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities and the White House Historical Association, and is a member of the U.S. Department of State Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee.

To white collar criminals, crimes rooted in corruption often seem “victimless” in a privileged world of loose rules and gray markets. Contrary to this belief, such crimes pose grave dangers to U.S. national security; namely, the corrupt practices within the art market. According to Foreign Policy, art dealers are similarly complicit in providing “secret channels for hostile regimes and their cronies to launder corruption proceeds” through murky markets, thus ultimately skirting around sanctions and undermining U.S. national security interests. Josh Rudolph of FP highlights the similarities between 10 different kinds of white collar criminals in his analysis of How Art Dealers, Real Estate Agents, and Hedge Funds Enable Corruption. The common theme across each corrupt actor and crony? The lack of legal framework makes their connections to money – and each other – very difficult to trace.

The Antiquities Coalition’s work to combat the mass corruption perpetuated by white collar crime in the art and antiquities trade emphasizes the need to trace theft, trafficking, and illicit sales around the world. While the U.S. Treasury has a well-developed anti-money laundering statutory framework, the legal guidelines have yet to be extended to the art market, thus enabling these gray markets. To give a sense of the extent of the global scale of the problem, as well as to commend the successful seizures of these stolen objects by authorities worldwide, the Antiquities Coalition updated the an interactive database of seized antiquities sourced from the MENA region, titled “Cultural Piracy: Mapping Antiquities Seizures Around the Globe” in September of 2021. The map plots 270 seizures of a total of 230,357 individual objects found in illicit contexts since 2014. 

The scale of the problem points out the clear vulnerability in the U.S. financial system that allows for large-scale money laundering to take place, seeing as the majority of offshore financial services are provided by the United States, says Rudolph. In fact, the United States is one of the few countries that fails to comply with the international standard on regulating money laundering. This is not just a weakness in the system, but a top national security concern. The U.S. government has recognized this threat, and must continue to urgently prioritize the regulation white collar criminal industry  in order to stop the perpetuation of corruption in its tracks. 

 

As the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly has concluded, the Antiquities Coalition looks back at the UNGA’s leadership in the fight against cultural racketeering. 

 

Protecting Culture Under Threat

At the 70th Session held in 2015, a main topic of discussion for the attending heads of state was how to combat the growing strength of violent extremist groups in the Middle East. To that end, key experts and stakeholders from the cultural and security sectors came together under UN auspices to seek innovative solutions to halt the trafficking of “blood antiquities.” 

Soon after, the UN partnered with Interpol to launch a global initiative, titled ‘Protecting Cultural Heritage–An Imperative for Humanity’ to boost protection of cultural heritage targeted by terrorists and traffickers. Leaders from the Middle East, the UN Security Council, UNODC, UNESCO, and Interpol came together to inaugurate this task force under a shared mission, stated by Mireille Ballestrazzi, President of Interpol: “to combine our efforts and resources to efficiently curb this criminal phenomenon and protect the world’s cultural heritage for future generations.”

Simultaneously, the Antiquities Coalition built upon the momentum of the UNGA’s declarations. Through a solutions-oriented forum with the Foreign Ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Australia, as well as senior delegations from Cambodia, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, the Antiquities Coalition brought together policymakers and leading experts to develop and implement targeted recommendations for halting this black trade. Our subsequent launch of the Culture Under Threat Task Force was met with overwhelming support and went on to publish a joint task force report that  put forward 31 specific recommendations to address the ongoing crisis of cultural racketeering.

At a 2016 General Assembly meeting, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, issued an urgent call to step up international action against the destruction of cultural heritage. The human rights expert told the UN General Assembly that the impacts of cultural heritage destruction is felt broadly, citing numerous examples of the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage having a grave impact on people. The Antiquities Coalition also released its recommendations for the US government through the Culture Under Threat Task Force, in collaboration with the Middle East Institute and Asia Society in April of 2016.

In 2017, UNIDROIT Secretary General José Angelo Estrella-Faria utilized the high level convening of featured speakers from Cyprus, the Council of Europe, INTERPOL, UNIDROIT, UNESCO, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to outline efforts to encourage UN member states to ratify the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention.

In 2018, The General Assembly adopted — without a vote — a draft resolution, “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin” (document A/73/L.54). When introducing the draft resolution, the Greece representative affirmed, “The international community shares a common responsibility to protect cultural property.”

At the 2019 meeting,  President Donald J. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — joined by UN Secretary-General António Guterres —  highlighted threats to the world’s religions and launched an international campaign to fight back, pledging $25 million to safeguard religious freedom, sites, and relics.

Putting Culture Center Stage

The UNGA has helped turn a spotlight on the links between violent extremism and cultural racketeering, as well as on the important organizations and individuals working to combat looting.

Beginning in 2017, on the margins of the UNGA,  the Global Hope Coalition began hosting an annual awards ceremony in service of its mission of identifying heroes against violent extremism and amplifying their work. 

Also at the 2018 conference, speakers explicitly linked illicit trafficking and terrorism, warning that the past few decades were characterized by an increase in the illicit trafficking of such artifacts. If unchecked, subsequent conflict in the Middle East would lead to unprecedented destruction, looting and theft.  

In 2019, the Italian Carabinieri Department for Protection of Cultural Heritage was honored as a Global Hope Hero for combating the illicit trade of cultural property and protecting cultural heritage in conflict and disaster zones. 

Prioritizing Cultural Heritage Protection

The antiquities trade has seen the General Assembly increasingly prioritize the protection of cultural property in response to the prevalence of the issue of cultural racketeering at both national and international levels. Recognition and participation from high level state leaders emphasizes the importance of the work being done to combat looting and trafficking, and encourages stakeholders to delve more deeply into this fight. The Antiquities Coalition commends the United Nations General Assembly’s sustained commitment to combating the threats the illicit trade of blood antiquities poses to cultural heritage and vulnerable communities. 

Background 

On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AML Act”) as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2021.  

The AML Act amends and expands the longstanding Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in several ways.  Most notably, for those involved in the antiquities market, this new BSA amendment will soon apply the BSA’s anti-money laundering (AML) requirements to any “person engaged in the trade of antiquities, including an advisor, consultant, or any other person who engages as a business in the solicitation or the sale of antiquities, subject to regulations prescribed by the [Treasury] Secretary.”¹

In essence, the United States’ AML laws will soon apply, in some fashion, to individuals and companies involved in the antiquities market.  

If the AML Act was enacted at the beginning of this year, are antiquities market participants already subject to the AML requirements in the BSA? 

Not yet.  U.S. federal law often comprises two components:  the legislation (enacted by Congress) and the regulations, also called rules or requirements (written and carried out by Executive Branch departments and agencies).²  Rules provide more detail for how to comply with the legislation after a public notice and comment process.

Here, Congress has enacted legislation in the form of the AML Act.  That legislation, in turn, requires the Treasury Department to draft and issue the new regulations that will apply to the antiquities market.   

The AML Act requires the Treasury Department to issue proposed rules within 360 days of January 1, 2021.³  It also specifies that the new requirements on the antiquities market won’t take effect until the “effective date of the final rules issued by the Secretary of the Treasury . . .”⁴  Final rules cannot be issued without permitting the public to weigh in on any proposed rules during a “notice and comment” period.  This means that before the antiquities market can be subject to any rules, the rules must be drafted, made public and open for comment, and revised into final rules–a process that is likely to take several months. 

However, financial institutions, as defined under the BSA and already subject to the BSA’s anti-money laundering requirements, should be aware of a March 9, 2021, notice issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is the specific Treasury Department bureau that imposes and carries out the BSA regulations.  

The notice, titled “FinCEN Informs Financial Institutions of Efforts Related to Trade in Antiquities and Art,” alerts financial institutions that illicit activity connected with the antiquities market could already be affecting them.  It also includes instructions for filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for transactions relating to art and antiquities.  

Organizations that were already subject to BSA requirements before the AML Act was enacted should be sure to review the FinCEN notice.  

How can antiquities market participants have a say in the new regulations?

Before federal rules can be finalized, the federal agency that is drafting them must publish the proposed rules and open them to comment by the public, during what is known as a “notice and comment” period.  The public can comment on the rules through the Regulations.gov website.

The agency can choose to involve the public before publishing proposed rules, by holding informal conversations with interested people and organizations.  It can also publish an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” in the Federal Register, to which interested individuals may respond by submitting comments and recommendations.⁵  

Once the proposed rules are drafted, the agency must publish them as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in the Federal Register.  The public is then encouraged to submit comments via Regulations.gov.  Examples of comments on other proposed rules can also be found on Regulations.gov. 

What are the proposed regulations likely to say?

The AML Act requires the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which imposes and carries out the BSA regulations, to coordinate with the FBI, Attorney General, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to consider several factors when drafting its proposed rules.  These factors are the best indication of what the regulations will address: 

• (A) the appropriate scope for the rulemaking, including determining which persons should be subject to the rulemaking, by size, type of business, domestic or international geographical locations, or otherwise;
• (B) the degree to which the regulations should focus on high-value trade in antiquities, and on the need to identify the actual purchasers of such antiquities, in addition to the agents or intermediaries acting for or on behalf of such purchasers;
• (C) the need, if any, to identify persons who are dealers, advisors, consultants, or any other persons who engage as a business in the trade in antiquities;
• (D) whether thresholds should apply in determining which persons to regulate;
• (E) whether certain exemptions should apply to the regulations; and
• (F) any other matter the Secretary determines appropriate.⁶ 

When can the public comment on the proposed regulations?

FinCEN has not yet issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the antiquities market regulations; it is required to do so within 360 days of January 1, 2021.⁷  

Once it issues the Notice, FinCEN will likely specify a comment period of at least 30-60 days.  It may also hold public hearings where people can make statements and submit data. 

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¹ NDAA Sec. 6110(a)(1)(B), to be codified at 31 U.S.C. Section 5312(a)(2)(Y), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6395/text.
² “Regulations” and “rules” are typically used interchangeably, as they are in this FAQ. See https://www.federalregister.gov/uploads/2011/01/the_rulemaking_process.pdf note 1.
³ Id. Sec. 6110(b)(1).
⁴ Id. Sec. 6001(a)(2), emphasis added.
⁵ See https://www.federalregister.gov/uploads/2011/01/the_rulemaking_process.pdf.
⁶ NDAA Sec. 6110(b)(2)(A)-(F).
⁷ Id. Sec. 6110(b)(1).

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About the Author: Betsy Feuerstein is an attorney and member of the Antiquities Coalition’s Financial Crimes Task Force. Her practice has focused on international economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, and anti-corruption matters. Ms. Feuerstein earned her J.D. at New York University School of Law, and earned a B.A. in Political Science and Art History from Northwestern University.