MEPs call for action to halt smuggling of historic works

Date: 14/06/01

By John Shelley

CULTURE ministers will meet next week to consider stepping up the EU's fight against a growing illegal trade in historical artefacts, amid signs that existing laws are not preventing criminals from dismantling the Union's cultural heritage.

Current laws which regulate the export of cultural objects and lay down procedures for returning stolen artefacts have been ineffective at preventing valuables from disappearing, according to a report by the Commission. Now MEPs are calling for tougher action. "Although it is of course difficult to quantify the volume of illegal trade, it is generally regarded as being of alarming proportions and is causing irreparable damage to the member states' cultural heritage," said Pedro Aparicio Sánchez, the Parliament's rapporteur on the subject "This trade has shown a noticeable increase over the last few years, reaching alarming proportions, as works of art and archeological sites within and outside the EU are steadily plundered and their contents dispersed."

The EU has two laws, introduced in the early 1990s, designed to prevent the smuggling of artefacts.

A directive lays down rules by which one member state can demand the return of a cultural object from another, but during the first seven years following agreement of this law only five such objects were returned.

The Commission blames member states for being too slow in transposing the directives into national law and for limiting their application to objects exported after 1993.

For example, Greece could not demand that the UK's British Museum return the Parthenon Marbles because the Seventh Earl of Elgin removed them 200 years ago.

The EU also has a regulation stipulating that all cultural goods, defined in 14 categories including archeological objects, paintings and books, must be granted an export licence before they can be moved across a border.

The Commission says these rules have raised awareness of the problem of artefact smuggling, but that this increased interest has "not really been converted into concrete results".

According to Interpol, the artefact trade is on the rise. In 1997, 5,569 works of art were reported stolen in France - in 1998, the figure rose dramatically to 7,800.

MEPs want member states to toughen the checks carried out before export licences are granted, and for the Union to set up a register of objects of cultural significance.

Culture ministers will meet in late June 2001 to consider stepping up the European Union's fight against a growing illegal trade in historical artefacts, amid signs that existing laws are not preventing criminals from dismantling the Union's cultural heritage.