G7 Presents Targeted Actions to Combat Illicit Art Crime and Antiquities Trafficking
September 25, 2024
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.