Series | Antiquity Studies
Volume 29 | Edited book | Stolen Heritage
Stolen Heritage
Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Heritage in the EU and the MENA Region
open access | peer reviewed-
edited by
- Arianna Traviglia - Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology-IIT - email
- Lucio Milano - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
- Cristina Tonghini - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email orcid profile
- Riccardo Giovanelli - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
Abstract
It is a well-known fact that organised crime has developed into an international network including very diverse actors – ranging from the simple ‘grave diggers’ to powerful and wealthy white-collar professionals – that adopt illegal practices like money laundering, fraud and forgery. This criminal system, ultimately, damages and disintegrates our cultural identity and, in some cases, fosters political corruption, terrorism or civil unrest through the transnational and illicit trafficking of cultural property. The forms of ‘ownership’ of Cultural Heritage are often indistinct, and – depending on the national legislation of reference – the proprietorship and trade of historical and artistic assets of value may be legitimate or not. Casual collectors and criminals have always taken advantage from these ambiguities and managed to place on the market items obtained by destruction and looting of museums, monuments and archaeological areas. Thus, over the years, even the most renowned museum institutions might have - more or less consciously – displayed, hosted or lent cultural objects of illicit origin. Ransacking, thefts, clandestine exports and disputable transactions are crimes that primarily affect countries that are rich in artistic and archaeological assets, but such activities do not involve just some countries. This is an international border-crossing phenomenon that starts in given countries and expands to many others. Some are briefly passed through while a handful of powerful and rich ones are the actual destination marketplaces. Drawing from the experience of the conference Stolen Heritage (Venice, December 2019), held in the framework of the H2020 NETCHER (NETwork and digital platform for Cultural Heritage Enhancing and Rebuilding) project, this edited volume focuses on illicit trafficking in cultural property addressing the issue from a multidisciplinary perspective and featuring papers authored by international experts and professionals actively involved in Cultural Heritage protection. The articles included expand on such diverse topics as the European legislation regulating import, export, trade and restitution of cultural objects; ‘conflict antiquities’ and cultural heritage at risk in the Near and Middle East; looting activities and illicit excavations in Italy; the use of technologies to counter looting practices and the publication of unprovenanced items. This collection is meant as a valuable resource to disseminate new results of the research as well as to facilitate a better understanding of the international legislation related to the protection of Cultural Heritage.
Keywords Gianfranco Becchina • Regulation (EU) 2019/880 • Cultural property • Protection of archaeological heritage • Organised cultural property crime • Palmyra • Narcotics trafficking • Organised crime • Preservation • Internal market • Sentinel-2 • Art-crime • Paul Getty • Germany • Online journalism • Trapezophoros • Conflict antiquities • Information • United Kingdom • Archaeological remote sensing • German Cultural Property Act • Syria • Illicit trade • Circulation of cultural goods • Vandalism • Apulian Vases • Art market • Antiquities trafficking • Looting • Synthetic Aperture Radar • Unidroit 1995 Convention • Cut-off date • J • Feature extraction • COSMO-SkyMed • Brexit • Cultural heritage • European Association of Archaeologists • Resolution • Cross-media • Giacomo Medici • Directive 2014/60/EU • Heritage • Pattern recognition • Funerary portraits • Iraq • Political violence • Cyprus • Social media • Threat • Turkey • Staatliche Museen Berlin • Google Earth • Reliefs • Louvre • Change detection • Satellites • UNESCO • Organised Crime
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-517-9 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-517-9 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-518-6 | Published March 31, 2021 | Language en
Copyright © 2021 Arianna Traviglia, Lucio Milano, Cristina Tonghini, Riccardo Giovanelli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
