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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology
Search Brown
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
The UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects was written in 1995 with the intent of establishing stricter import/export rules for cultural property, as well as creating harsher wording for offenders. This wording is the reason that many of the larger bodies or players in the realm of cultural property have signed, but not ratified this convention. Notable abscences include the U.S., Greece and Britain. Notable issues of UNIDROIT include compensation for good-faith purchasers of objects, ie people who possess illicit goods that are not aware of the nature of the objects, a more clear definition of across-the-board cultural property, as well as a clarified process to perform in the pursuit of due diligence on an object.
Current signatories to this convention are: