Introduction
The growth in the international market in art works and other cultural objects following World War II prompted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to begin the drafting in the 1960s of an international convention to control this trade. The 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (“the UNESCO Convention”) was adopted in late 1970; there are currently 123 States Parties.
Recognizing that there were impediments to acceptance of the 1970 UNESCO Convention particularly by European civil law nations, UNESCO asked the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) to draft a new convention to respond to these concerns, and in 1995, the Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects was finalized. This convention focuses on the creation of private rights of action, through adoption of uniform...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
O'Keefe, P.J. 2007. Commentary on the 1970 UNESCO Convention, 2nd ed. Leicester: Institute of Art and Law.
Vigneron, S. 2008. Trafic illicite et restitution des biens culturels, Royaume Uni, in M. Cornu & J. Fromageau (ed.) Protection de la propriété culturelle et circulation des biens culturels. Étude de droit comparé Europe /Asie. Available at: http://www.gip-recherche-justice.fr/IMG/pdf/173-RF-Cornu_Protection_propriete_culturelle.pdf.
Further Reading
Gerstenblith, P. 2012. Models of implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention: can their effectiveness be determined?, in L.V. Prott, R. Redmond-Cooper & S. Urice (ed.) Realising cultural heritage law: Festschrift in honour of Patrick O’Keefe: 9-25. Leicester: Institute of Art and Law.
O'Keefe, P.J. & L.V. Prott. 2011. Cultural heritage conventions and other instruments: a compendium with commentary. Builth Wells: Institute of Art and Law.
Prott, L.V. 1996. Commentary on the Unidroit Convention. Leicester: Institute of Art and Law.
UNESCO. Conventions. Available at: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13039&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html [no access date].
UNIDROIT. 1995. Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Available at: http://unidroit.org/english/conventions/1995culturalproperty/main.htm.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Additional information
Views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not necessarily those of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee or the U.S. Government.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Gerstenblith, P. (2014). UNESCO (1970) and UNIDROIT (1995) Conventions. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_399
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_399
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law