Patrick is right - there are very strict rules about soldiers taking trophy
weapons home, both for the British and Americans.  American military
personnel are NEVER allowed to do so unless the object is intended for a
sanctioned military museum back home, and then there are stacks of paperwork
required.  If you are caught with any kind of contraband (military personnel
DO go through Customs) the penalties are severe.  Troops in Bosnia were
allowed to bring confiscated weapons home to local military museums.

As an aside, anything that miltary personnel purchase for themselves
(officers purchase ALL their own uniforms and much of their own field
equipment) is their personal property and can be legally donated to museums.
  Most issued military equipment can be legally purchased in military
surplus stores and government auctions.  The problem begins when you are
offered objects which a soldier can't purchase, such as a fully automatic
M16 or a recent issue gas mask.  Then you know they were probably obtained
illegally.

Finally, there are VERY strict regulations against US military personnel
taking any sort of cultural property.  US commanders are charged with
safeguarding cultural property in their areas of operation.  There is even a
special branch of the Army called Civil Affairs, which, along with things
like humanitarian aid and refugee operations, is concerned with the
protection of arts, monuments, and archives in war time, peacekeeping and
disasters.

Cori Wegener


>From: Boylan P <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: WAR TROPHIES - WAS I am very concerned!
>Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 16:52:48 +0100
>
>On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Ron Twellman wrote:
>
>++++++ [CLIP] ++++++
>
> > Of course we also get items from the winning side of wars and the
>legalities
> > there are more complicated.  What some service people were able to
>retain
> > when they were mustered out others had to turn in before they were
>released.
> > I wouldn't doubt there was some convoluted official governmental policy
>on
> > this, but in practice it seems to have varied with who was in charge at
>a
> > particular place and time.  The reality is that the governments
>concerned
> > are not likely to incur the wrath of their veterans over ownership of
> > obsolete uniforms and equipment - and we accept appropriate items under
>the
> > same assumption.
> >
>+++++++++++++
>
> >
> > Could we get in trouble over any of this?  Sure the possibility exists,
>but
> > it's extremely small.  I'm more concerned with the inherent vice some of
> > these items contain in the way of radioactivity or hazardous chemicals
>than
> > over their dubious legal provenance.
>
>
>=====================================
>
>Ron:
>
>These are very interesting questions on several grounds.
>
>As international law has gradually evolved over the past 350+ years since
>the Peace of Westphalia, and especially during the century since the first
>Hague Laws of War of 1899 and 1907, the ancient traditional rights of the
>victor/conqueror in relation to cultural property have been steadily
>eroded so that almost all taking of property would nowadays be regarded as
>looting or plunder, and hence illegal, unless this was as war reparations
>or compensation under the terms of either an agreed settlement (e.g. in a
>peace treaty) or externally imposed (e.g. by resolution of the Security
>Council of the UN).
>
>The one exception that still seems to survive this marked evolution of the
>international laws and customs of war  is in respect of specifically
>military property, such as weapons, delivery platforms (ships, aircraft,
>tanks etc.), military equipment, ammunition and other war "materiel"
>including symbols, flags, insignia etc.  Here it still seems to be
>accepted that this can be taken legitimately as war booty by the military
>forces capturing it.
>
>However, it is much more doubtful whether an individual soldier etc. can
>take such captured property for his/her personal use, unless explicitly
>authorised from a high military level.  (In August 1945 my father, and all
>the first 100 British troops who led the liberation of Thailand was given
>a captured Japanese officer's sword by the British Commander in Bangkok,
>so presumably that was officially sanctioned.) However, I would suggest
>that such an action (or even a forced "purchase" - whether from captured
>enemy personnel or otherwise) without proper military command authority
>should be regarded as theft and be subject to normal military law and
>sanctions.
>
>On your second point, I had a similar experience when I bought for ma
>private collector for my then museum a former Royal Air Force nuclear
>bomber, only to find that it was stuffed with top secret avionics and
>weapons systems (though thankfully no "H" bombs!) which had mysteriously
>found their way back into the aircraft despite it being stripped of such
>items before its original sale.  (No doubt this stuff has been
>"liberated" and supplied to the aircraft's previous owner- I believe free
>of charge - by sympathetic technical and military personnel.
>
>
>
>Patrick J. Boylan
>(Professor of Heritage Policy and Management)
>
>City University, London,
>Department of Arts Policy and Management
>Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB, UK;
>phone: +44-20-7477.8750, fax:+44-20-7477.8887;
>Home: 38 Kingsmead Road, Leicester LE2 3YB, UK
>phone & fax: +44-(0)116-288.5186
>E-mail: [log in to unmask];  Web site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/
>
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