As delivered

Introduction

Dear hosts, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to open this international seminar on protecting cultural heritage through criminal law.

I would like to welcome you on behalf of the Council of Europe, which is co-organising this important event.

And I would like to thank our co-hosts: the IMT School for Advanced Studies, the Italian Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.

We meet in a city where every corner reminds us of the power of heritage.

The author Henry James described Lucca as “overflowing with everything”.

It’s true: art, history, religion, industry, technology. At once modern and old, our setting reminds us that everything we are is shaped by everything we were. Heritage is not simply a record of the past; it tells of the journey that our ancestors have taken to create the identities we inhabit today, and to forge the common bonds and shared values which exist between us.

Henry James also said of Lucca that it is a place which “makes for good example”. And here I would like to thank the Italian authorities for the example they are setting in the protection of cultural property.

We will hear from the Justice and Culture Ministers about the comprehensive set of measures being taken by Italy to crack down on the trafficking of cultural property for the purpose of organised crime.

It is precisely this kind of leadership from European states which is needed to stop this illicit trade from flourishing on our continent.   

The Council of Europe and Cultural Heritage

The Council of Europe – guardian of the European Convention on Human Rights and home to the European Court of Human Rights – has long sought to protect cultural heritage, by securing international agreement on common, legal standards, which are then monitored and enforced.

On December 19th 1954, our landmark European Cultural Convention was adopted in Paris: it was the first international instrument to say that Europe has a common cultural heritage, which all states have a duty to protect.

Our 1983 Granada convention and 1992 La Valetta convention introduced strict international standards against deliberate damage of architectural and archaeological heritage.

In 2000, our European Landscape Convention, also known as the Florence Convention, established safeguards for natural, living heritage. 

Our 2005 “Faro” convention gives citizens and local authorities a much greater stake in defining and managing their heritage – something which seems to be happening naturally here in Lucca.

Our Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-production (revised) was signed on 30 January 2017.

So you’ll see that we have a long tradition in this field.

And now it is time, once again, for the Council of Europe to help safeguard cultural property by bringing together Europe’s governments, in order to strengthen the relevant international criminal law.

Blood Antiquities

Except, this time, we are not simply concerned with cultural property found within our own borders.

This time, we are concerned with the many antiquities and artefacts being stolen from other parts of the world and trafficked through Europe’s art markets.

Cultural looting is not a new crime. But the activities of Daesh and others, predominantly in Syria and Iraq, have taken it to a new level.

The ancient cities of Palmyra and Nimrud have been ransacked. Countless sites have been illegally excavated. And, while it is impossible to put an exact amount on the profits, it’s big business. The blood antiquities trade is helping make the so-called Islamic State the most cash-rich terrorist organisation in history.

Pillaged antiquities are shipped to art markets across the world. In Europe, traffickers take full advantage of weak and inconsistent rules, in order to sell the goods to wealthy buyers. Stolen items have been seized in Turkey, Bulgaria, the UK, Spain and elsewhere. But, for every object intercepted, many are lost.  And, once they disappear into private collections, they become extremely difficult to retrieve. 

Some countries do better than others. I have already mentioned Italy. The Swiss too, for example, are tightening up the regulations governing their duty-free warehouses, which have [ historically ] been exploited by criminal gangs.

I should also mention the heroic efforts of UNESCO to strengthen national laws protecting heritage through their own 1970 Convention, which created – for the first time – a framework for international co-operation against this crime.

However, many gaps remain.

The Convention

In 2015 Culture Ministers from across Council of Europe member states therefore called for action.

The decision was taken that the Council of Europe would draft a new Convention to criminalise, for the first time in international law, the web of acts supporting the blood antiquities trade.

The Council of Europe is a convention-based body: filling legal gaps is our core business. And we have the privilege of being able to bring together governments and also criminal law experts and cultural property specialists in order to take a multi-disciplinary approach.

Building on previous efforts, not only those of UNESCO but also UNIDROIT, the new instrument will set out, precisely, which actions are illegal so that states can go after the ruthless organised crime groups, terrorist organisations and any other offender. Not just traffickers, but also corrupt officials, dodgy dealers and so on.

By bringing Europe’s states up to the same standards, in terms of their domestic legislation, we hope to enable much more effective cross-border co-operation.     

Crucially, the Convention will also articulate the responsibilities on buyers. Supply depends on demand. Buyers who are genuinely misled, even when they have made appropriate checks, will have nothing to fear. Those, however, who knowingly purchase stolen objects will be unambiguously guilty of a crime. Tougher sanctions will also be available for buyers and professionals who claim ignorance, but who should have known better.

This is a truly international effort: the new Convention will be open to any state wishing to join.

Its success will also depend heavily on the involvement of a broad range of private sector organisations: auctioneers, museum curators, restorers, online traders. I am therefore very pleased to see representatives from some of these fields here with us today.

A Convention with Teeth

The drafting process is now well underway. It is not an easy process, but the response from our members has so far been encouraging.

We hope to have the new Blood Antiquities Convention adopted by our governments at a meeting of Ministers in Cyprus, in May. Shortly after the treaty will be open for signature and ratification – where states turn good intentions into action.

Today’s meeting will I’m sure make valuable contributions to the final drafting stages, and more generally to raising the visibility of this extremely important issue. And I strongly urge you to help us prepare for the next stage: implementation.

Good laws are only ever half the battle. We urgently need to identify credible and realistic means of putting the new instrument into practice. This will be an ambitious text – but lofty ambitions will not make a difference unless we know how to ensure that the treaty has real teeth.

I can tell you, after many years at the Council of Europe, that the most effective Conventions are those which set clear standards, are properly monitored and implemented. This is our “golden triangle” – and completing the triangle for this instrument will be essential for its success.

This challenge must now be at the top of our concerns, and I very much look forward to hearing your views.

Help us get this right so that we can limit this intolerable trade, which robs the world of its shared heritage while financing the very extremists bent on destroying our democratic way of life.